Without further ado

Recently, a friend of mine returned from presenting a lecture, curious as to why the phrase ”without further ado” has become popular to the point of cliche in introducing speakers. Indeed, we tend not to say, “Without further ado, I am going to the grocery to buy a pint chocolate ice cream,” or “Without further ado, let’s do the spring yard clean-up because the town leaf pick-up is tomorrow.” What is the big ado associated with introducing a speaker? An ado regarding the question ensued on Facebook, generating over 40 comments. Soon thereafter, I attended a conference where I heard the phrase used in introducing speakers, so without further ado, I am going to share my contribution to this linguistic ado.

According to the trusty OED, the phrase "without more ado," meaning "without further work, ceremony," goes back as far as the 14th century. The first literary example listed (from 1380) goes to the effect of the lords engaged in a certain action "without more a-do." (Sadly, my Old English is too rusty to translate the phrase representing that action.) "A-do," the informal version of the verb "at do," originated in the North of England and became "to do" in more broad usage. Around the 16th century, the verb decided to "transgrammar" itself to a noun, "ado." My favorite literary example reads, "William wanted a wife, and they were married without more ado," from a book dated 1876 about the Norman Conquest. Perhaps after marrying, William the Conqueror decided to leave the "further ado" to speechifying rather than marriage, perhaps trying to discourage the “at do” that can accompany marriage.

Contemplating this introductory phrase reminded me of the Southern colloquialism “fixing to,” meaning “getting ready to,” as in “Without further ado, I am fixing to introduce a speaker.” To my surprise, neither my Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang nor my Chamber’s Slang Dictionary has an entry or sub-entry on “fixing to.” Not surprisingly, however, I found a definition of “fixing to” on urbandictionary.com, which identifies the phrase as “vernacular particular to the southern US.” 

LAGNIAPPE: My sister and I many years ago created a sentence reflecting a number of Southern regional expressions: I am fixing to carry my bohunkus to the store to make groceries.