"don" = to wear; (hence) to bear on the exterior.

[Joel S. Berson]

At 11/27/2008 11:01 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>This came up a couple of months ago. Here's another ex., from a
>professionally edited source:
>
>Yesterday at http://www.livescience.com/animals/081126-turtle-shell.html:
>
>"In an accompanying Nature article, researchers point to an
>alternative hypothesis for this partially-protected turtle. They
>suggest even earlier turtles donned a complete upper and lower shell."

But is there not a folk tale of the turtle taking off his shell?  He
must have put it back on at some time.

Joel

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