I recently had the chance to see a CDC sign about, among other things, how to

[conuly]

Don (put on) PPE and doff (take off) said PPE.

Parentheses are theirs, not mine - I'm of the firm belief that if you have to define your term immediately after using it, you're better off not using it on an informational poster to begin with. I'm sure they have some reason they had to do that, but I'm equally sure that reason was not as good a reason as they think.

However, my primary thought, after criticizing their editorial decisions here, is that I really want to inform whoever made that poster that, etymologically speaking, "don" is "do on" and "doff" is "do off", because English phrasal verbs, including those using vagueisms like "do", "make", "put", and "take", are apparently a deeply inbuilt feature of our language.

This fact wouldn't improve their signage nor anybody's comprehension, but I still want to tell them. Barring that, I'm telling all of you.

Comments

[pauamma]

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?cat=106. Also:
- Why does Don feel put on? (And who's inflicting that put-on on them?)
- Who is Doff, and why did they say "PPE"? (Yes, I know "said" is anaphoric here. It's still stilted and obscure.)

[conuly]

I said PPE. The sign might have as well, or they might have used some other term. Since the sign is for healthcare workers it makes sense to use their jargon, right up until they realize they've gone too far and used jargon the workers might not know.