don
noun
- role in Mafia
verb
- put on (eg. clothes)
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /dɒn/ / /dɑn/
name
Etymology: * As an English and Scottish surname, variant of Dunn. * Also as an English and Scottish surname, from Dun, a place in Scotland. * As an Italian surname, variant of Dono, shortened from dono di Dio (“gift of God”). * As a Galician surname, from a nickname derived from don (“kindness, favor”). * As a Hungarian surname, variant of Donát, Donath. * As a French surname of Germanic origin, from the old name Dodo, related to Dodier, from the name Dodhari, the first element a reduplicated word of arbitrary origin and the second from *hari (“army”). * Also as a French surname, from the place Don in Nord. * As a Jewish surname, from a variant of Dan. * As a Chinese surname, Romanized from 曾, see Zeng. * As a Vietnamese surname Đôn, possibly from Chinese 敦, see Dun.
- A surname.
noun
Etymology: From Latin dominus (“lord, head of household”), akin to Italian don, Sicilian don, Spanish don; from domus (“house”). Doublet of dom, domine, dominie, and dominus.
- A university professor, particularly one at Oxford or Cambridge.
“No one feeds at the high table except the dons and the gentlemen-commoners, who are undergraduates in velvet caps and silk gowns[.]”
“The truth is, unless a man can get the prestige and income of a Don and write donnish books, it’s hardly worth while for him to make a Greek and Latin machine of himself and be able to spin you out pages of the Greek dramatists at any verse you’ll give him as a cue.”
- An employee of a university residence who lives among the student residents.
- A mafia boss, especially one who is Italian or Italian-American.
- A (usually Spanish or Italian) title of respect to a man, especially a lord or nobleman.
“Wo often of an evening go and hear the band in the square opposite the captin-giniral’s palace—it is here were the dons and donnas and all the fashionables assemble, and I must say it’s amusing.”
“Time was when the walker amid California vales could stop at some cool cellar hid in these western hills and pour from great flagons a shimmering glass of cool red wine. Nowadays, the hand of the law has stepped in and spoiled all this, because the hordes of wanderers who have come west have made of these resting places questionable resorts—made of them places that the Spanish dons and donnas never dreamed of.”
- Any man, bloke, dude.
“I’m confused like who’s this don .22 bells and that who’s on”
verb
Etymology: From Middle English don (“to put on”), from Old English dōn on; equivalent to do + on. Compare also doff, dup, dout.
- To put on clothing; to dress (oneself) in an article of personal attire.
“To don one's clothes.”
“Now when he had reached the King's capital wherein was Alaeddin, he alighted at one of the Kháns; and, when he had rested from the weariness of wayfare, he donned his dress and went down to wander about the streets, where he never passed a group without hearing them prate about the pavilion and its grandeur and vaunt the beauty of Alaeddin and his lovesomeness, his liberality and generosity, his fine manners and his good morals.”