deed: [OE] Etymologically, a deed is ‘that which is done’. An ancient word, it can be traced back as far as a hypothetical *dhētis, a noun derived from *dhē-, *dhō- ‘place, put’, the Indo- European base from which do comes. This passed into Germanic as *dǣdiz, which produced German tat, Dutch daad, and Swedish dåad as well as English deed. The word’s application to a legal document is a 14th-century development. => do
