Do What?

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Ann from Dallas.

Hello, Ann. Welcome.

Hi, Ann.

What’s going on?

Well, I’ve grown up in Dallas, and I’ve moved away, lived all over the world, and came back.

And for some reason or another, I just started to notice a phrase,

And I was wondering if this phrase was unique to Texas or if its origins were from some other part of the South.

And it’s the phrase, do what?

For instance, there will be four of us sitting at a nice restaurant,

And the waiter will come up, and he will be telling us what the entrees are and everything,

And one of the people will not be listening, and he’ll go, do what?

And I’m looking at them going like, they didn’t do anything.

And it’s kind of like they use this phrase as if it’s instead of saying, like, what did you say or huh,

Which would be more obvious, huh.

But I’m wondering if it’s just unique to Texas.

I hear it from people from the rural areas.

Yeah, yeah.

In Texas, you said you’re from Texas.

Originally, you’ve come back after being away for a while.

Right.

It’s right there up with fixing.

I’m fixing to do something.

I’m not surprised.

They’re both southernisms, that’s for sure.

You’ll find do what is spread from, say, the uppermost reaches of North Carolina,

Maybe even into Maryland and Virginia and down through the south

And Alabama, Louisiana.

And it makes its home in Texas, too.

So it’s definitely something you are going to hear from one end of the state,

As big as it is, to the other.

Right, because I noticed some friends of mine from Tennessee who had moved to Texas use it,

And I thought, huh, well, maybe it actually would spread further away from Texas,

But, yeah, it’s a bit annoying.

Oh, it’s annoying, is it?

Oh, absolutely.

Well, let me ask you, do you say or do you know anyone who says, come again?

I was talking to some friends because we were asking each other,

Do you ever hear anybody say, do what?

And then a couple times they said, come again, but come again takes too long.

And I think just the way everybody swallows everything, do what, just kind of,

And it’s just like a do what.

It’s almost like a duo or, you know, a do bop.

Right, right.

Right. You’ll often find it written in a very casual speech as if it’s one word.

It’s said so fast and so blended together that some people mistake it for a single word instead of two words.

You know, when I think of do what, I think of Gomer Pyle.

Yeah.

Well, there, okay, then that’d be about Alabama, I suppose.

-huh. Sergeant, do what?

I like it.

But, Ann, this is a widespread expression. It’s very idiomatic.

And by that, I mean if you try to break it down into its components words, D-O and W-H-A-T, it’s not likely to make sense.

You’ve got to treat those two words together as a single thing, a single item unbroken.

And then it has a meaning.

And then it has a role and it’s some relevance.

And it’s very serviceable.

It does its job.

It is a way of saying what or what did you mean?

What did you say?

Or come again or pardon or how’s that?

It’s very useful.

Yeah, and maybe just pretend like it’s from French or something.

Exactly.

Do that.

But, you know, I always think of it as the brother or sister to saying how come instead of why.

Exactly.

Because it’s another way of saying, you know, a two-word phrase or one word will do.

Okay, great.

Well, Anne, thank you very much for calling.

You bet.

All right.

Thank you.

Take care of yourself, Anne.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

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