overdue » overdo

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • “… she is always reminding Gary of how depressed he is, in the nagging way of an editor inquiring to her writer about a much overdo book.” (link)
  • “… Bob Smithers who in 1867 bought up land in the South by paying the overdo taxes and became a rich man.” (link)
  • “… buying the calculator from the library was cheaper than paying an overdo fine?” (link)

Yet another member of the “due” / “do” family; see “due” >> “do” and “do” >> “due” and “undue” >> “undo” (which also covers “undo” >> “undue”). In this case, some people seem to have discerned a component of ‘do too much’ in the semantics of “overdue”.

As with “undue” >> “undo”, the reverse substitution is also occasionally attested, at least in the verb-object combination “overdue exercise” for “overdo exercise”:

Do not overdue exercise, if your dog is exhausted and begins to get weaker and goes down. This is not productive. (link)

… in the gym about 30 minutes. I think there’s a point where you can overdue exercise, especially aerobic exercise. (link)

| link | entered by Arnold Zwicky, 2005/07/31 |

Commentaries

  1. 1

    Commentary by Dr. Mark Zurbuchen , 2006/10/30 at 4:31 pm

    Instance of “undue” >> “undo” (by a heavy computer user?)

    I dispose of them and save them from any undo problems.

    Quoted from thread on FARK.com. (forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/…, October 29, 2006).

  2. 2

    Commentary by Dr. Mark Zurbuchen , 2006/10/30 at 4:38 pm

    Instance of “undue” >> “undo” (by a heavy computer user?)

    I dispose of them and save them from any undo problems.

    Quoted from thread on FARK.com. (forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/…, October 29, 2006).

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