609: don and doff Aug 8, 2016

People used to talked about doffing and donning articles of clothing with about the same frequency. In the mid-1800's however, the 'don' became significantly more popular, and left doff to the dust as a relatively obscure word. Both of them have originated a pair since the 14th century, from the phrase "to do off" and "to do on". Shakespeare wrote, "what's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet...Romeo, doff thy name; and for that name which is no part of thee, take all myself, which is the first recorded use of the word meaning "to rid oneself of" in a sense that is not clothing.