[Ads-l] To "do" an order of food

[Ben Yagoda]

I’m researching the increasingly common custom of using the word “do” when ordering food—as in “I’ll do the double cheeseburger.” 

Note that this is related to but not the same as the older “Let’s do lunch” (the OED has a 1987 cite for that, as well as “We have do do some Korean”) or “doing” drugs or a particular drug or liquor (“do a shot of tequila,” OED, 2001). Those quotations come from an entry for “do” (1.28.a) defined as "To partake of (a portion of food or (esp.) an alcoholic drink); to eat or drink, esp. in a social context.” But the “do” I’m interested in is limited to ordering food or drink. I’ve seen it mostly among people under 35 or so (though it’s creeping into older groups). Thus, I was in a Williamsburg, Brooklyn, coffee shop the other day, and it was overdetermined that the customer in front of me would say, “I’ll do the oat latte."

I posed the question on Facebook and a number of people felt the usage popped up in the last dozen or so years and originated on the West Coast. One person associated it with the Kardashians and with the “Real Housewives” franchise. Some of the earliest examples I’ve found are in “Portlandia” episodes from 2012 and 2013, where characters say things like "I’ll do the frittata…. And you get the marionberry pancakes. - I 'll do the granola” and “I’ll do the, um, torpedo slam burger. Torpedo slam burger as a taco.”

Any insight or suggestions appreciated.

Ben

Ben Yagoda
Linktree of published pieces: https://linktr.ee/benyagoda
Website: benyagoda.com


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