don

A verb for the bon ton. Short and to the point, but with personality – elegant, even. You may know a person or a river of this name, which may raise or lower its tone for you; the Oxonian echoes certainly add a touch of gown, and even the wiseguys with irrefusable deals wear bowties and leather heels. It has a sound of a bright early morning or of a Christmas bell to make you reach for your gay apparel. The tongue starts out on the alveolar ridge, parts and returns, like a motion made when tying a tie, but between the first touch and the second, the velum lowers to open the nose, like a shoe tongue allowing a foot entry, and so the crisp beginning is followed by a more sustained and fading finish, just like many an evening spent in a tuxedo. Its making, too, was neat like buttoning a vest: do on… don. And what do you do after on? Off!