Old English dæd "a doing, act, action, transaction, event," from Proto-Germanic *dædis (cognates: Old Saxon dad, Old Norse dað, Old Frisian dede, Middle Dutch daet, Dutch daad, Old High German tat, German Tat "deed," Gothic gadeþs "a putting, placing"), from PIE *dhetis (cognates: Lithuanian detis "load, burden," Greek thesis "a placing, setting"), from *dhe- "place, put" (see do). Sense of "written legal document" is early 14c. As a verb, 1806, American English Related: Deeded; deeding.