As we’ve previously discussed, firefighters don and doff their equipment, terms deriving from do on and do off. They are also said to dout a fire, meaning they “extinguish” it, dout being a similar shortening of do out. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Dout a Fire, but Don’t Doubt It”
We’ve talked before about the words don and doff, and that’s D-O-N and D-O-F-F.
Those are what firefighters do with their equipment.
And we don our gay apparel in the Christmas carol.
Right, and those words come from do on and do off.
But I recently learned that there’s also the word doubt, D-O-U-T.
And you use the word doubt when you’re talking about putting out a fire.
Oh, so you do out.
Yes, yes.
You doubt it or you doubt it out.
You hear that particularly in Wyoming.
How about that?
I didn’t, that’s a new one for me.
I love it that there’s a set of these three words that are constructed the same way.
There’s something really pleasing about having that set.
It’s kind of like salt shaker, pepper shaker, and then, I don’t know, cinnamon sugar shaker.
If you come across a really pleasing set of words, share them with us.
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