deed - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English dede, from Old English dēd, dǣd (“deed, act”), from Proto-West Germanic *dādi, from Proto-Germanic *dēdiz (“deed”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰéh₁tis (“deed, action”). Analyzable through Proto-Germanic as do +‎ -th. Doublet of thesis.

The real estate sense derives from the fact that property deeds are traditionally used to demonstrate proof of ownership of a legal title in common law jurisdictions, such as England & Wales and most of the United States.

Cognates

Cognate with West Frisian died, Dutch daad (“deed, act”), German Low German Daad, German Tat (“deed, action”), Swedish, Norwegian and Danish dåd (“act, action”). The Proto-Indo-European root is also the source of Ancient Greek θέσις (thésis, “setting, arrangement”).

deed (plural deeds)

  1. An action or act; something that is done.
    One small deed can have one strong effect or more.
  2. A brave or noteworthy action; a feat or exploit.
  3. Action or fact, as opposed to rhetoric or deliberation.
    I have fulfilled my promise in word and in deed.
  4. (law) A legal instrument that is executed under seal or before a witness; sometimes required for certain legal activities, such as the transfer of certain kinds of property.
    1. (by extension, real estate) The legal title to real estate; ownership.
      I inherited the deed to the house.

legal instrument — see also title

deed (third-person singular simple present deeds, present participle deeding, simple past and past participle deeded)

  1. (real estate, informal) To transfer real property by deed.
    He deeded over the mineral rights to some fellas from Denver.

deed

  1. singular past indicative of doen

From Old English dēad, from Proto-West Germanic *daud, from Proto-Germanic *daudaz.

deed

  1. dead (no longer alive)
    • c. 1180, Orͬm, “Secundum Lucam .I. [Luke 1:5] / Secundum Lucam .II. [Luke 1:18]”, in Orͬmulum (Bodleian MS. Junius 1), Bourne Abbey, Lincolnshire, folio 20, verso, column 1; republished at Oxford: Digital Bodleian, 10 January 2019:
      Forͬ fra þatt hıre make ıſſ dæd⹎ Ne kepeþþ ᵹho nan oþerr. Acc ſerrᵹͪeþþ aᵹᵹ forͬþı ꝥ ᵹho. Ne maᵹᫌ himͫ noƿƿhar fındenn
      Because whenever her mate is dead, she doesn't get another, but always grieves since she can't find him anywhere.
    • c. 1395, John Wycliffe, John Purvey [_et al._], transl., Bible (Wycliffite Bible (later version), MS Lich 10.)‎[2], published c. 1410, Joon 5:21, folio 47, recto, column 1; republished as Wycliffe's translation of the New Testament, Lichfield: Bill Endres, 2010:
      foꝛ as þe fadir reiſiþ deed men ⁊ quykeneþ .· ſo þe ſone quykeneþ whom he wole
      Just like the father raises the dead and revives them, the son revives who he wants.
  2. inert, inactive.

deed

  1. past participle of dee
  2. (Southern Scots) past participle of dei
  3. Misspelling of deid

From Middle English dæd, from Old English dēad, from Proto-West Germanic *daud.

deed

  1. dead[1]
    • 1927, “LAMENT OF A WIDOW”, in THE ANCIENT DIALECT OF THE BARONIES OF FORTH AND BARGY, COUNTY WEXFORD, page 130, lines 4[2]:
      Ochone! Jone, thee yart deed.
      Ochone, John, you are dead.
  1. ^ Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828), William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 33
  2. ^ Kathleen A. Browne (1927), “THE ANCIENT DIALECT OF THE BARONIES OF FORTH AND BARGY, COUNTY WEXFORD.”, in Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of lreland (Sixth Series)‎[1], volume 17, number 2, Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland