slang - Night do? What does it mean?
I'm watching a TV show about midwife, two ladies are taking:
A: next year I'm gonna work Christmas because I'm getting married in the new year.
B: are you? Is that when it is? Am I coming to the night do?
What does the night do mean in the context?
Answer
Do means something along the lines of party in this instance. A post-wedding party, on the evening of the wedding, probably.
OED has:
DO, n.1
b. Something done in a set or formal manner; a performance; esp. an entertainment or show; a party; hence (orig. jocular), a military engagement, raid, or other ‘show’. Orig. dial. or vulgar.
and some examples of its use first attested to from 1824:
a 1824 J. BRIGGS Remains (1825) 243 Such individuals should have their feast (or do, as it is called).
1925 FRASER & GIBBONS Soldier & Sailor Words 78 Do, an event. A stunt. An attack, etc. E.g., ‘When is the do coming off?’; ‘The Somme do’; ‘The Havrincourt do’, etc.
1955 Times 18 May 14/2 Miss Margaret Herbison broadcast on behalf of the Labour Party last night a talk which she described as a ‘family do’.
1958 M. KERR People of Ship St. ix. 108 Her family has a ‘do’ every year on the anniversary of the day her mother's father died. Ibid., Christmas ‘dos’ are especially important.
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