Other forms: duties
A duty is something you have to do because of who you are, not because you fancy it. Turning up for your shift on time, locking the gate behind you, ringing your mother on Sundays.
The word splits two ways. There is the moral one — a sense of duty, doing your duty, a duty of care — and there is the tax one: duty is what a government charges on goods, which is why the airport shop is duty-free and why importers argue about customs duty. On duty and off duty say whether a nurse or an officer is working this minute. It takes to when it points at an action: it is your duty to tell them. And heavy-duty means built to survive hard use, with no obligation in it at all.
1noundutyA task you have to carry out as part of your job. Mostly used in the plural.~56%
“Her duties include locking up at night.”
synonyms: responsibility
2nounobligationWhat you ought to do because it is right.~37%
“He visited every Sunday out of duty rather than pleasure.”
synonyms: obligation
3nountaxA tax charged on goods, especially goods brought into a country.~7%
“He paid the duty on the wine at the border.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 140 sentences found in the wild and placed 55 of them on a sense (85 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Duty is due with an ending stuck on it: Middle English duete, from dewe, due. A duty is simply a thing that is due from you, and that single idea still covers both halves of the modern word — the duty you owe your patients, and the duty you owe the customs office.
Middle English
duete
English, today
duty
From Middle English duete, from Middle English dewe + Middle English -te. Equivalent to due + -ty.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA