If you’re trying to make a positive impact in this world, you might want to reevaluate your intentions if others are referring to you as a “do gooder.” On the other hand, if they’re calling you a “good doer,” you probably are, in fact, doing some good.
Of course, since this is a language program, we’re also interested in the fact that “do gooder” doesn’t follow the patterns that other compounds follow. We’re used to a noun followed by a verb with “er” at the end. Think, “bus driver,” “bill payer,” and “peace maker.”
“Good doer,” which does follow the aforementioned pattern, is older than “do gooder” and hasn’t picked up any negative connotations. It goes back to the 1400s and was actually more popular than “do gooder” through the middle of the 20th century.
“Do gooder” first showed up in 1898 and originated in the United States. However, the Oxford English Dictionary places the adjective “do good” as far back as the 1850s.
The editors of the 2003 Merriam Webster Collegiate dictionary define "do gooder" as "an earnest, often naive humanitarian or reformer." It can take many forms, and many of them are disparaging: "do-gooding," "do-goodism," "do-goodery," etc.
The whiff of ridicule associated with “do gooder” is more than apparent in this quote from a 1943 edition of the Charleston, West Virginia Daily Mail: "The planners in Washington and other places where chronic do-goodism flourishes are already talking about quarts of milk for every naked heathen in the world."
After looking into “do gooders” and “good doers,” we started to wonder whether “goody goodies” were part of things. To hear about that, listen to the next edition of That’s What They Say.
