do

Do, dare, dedi, datum looks like a first conjugation verb and mostly behaves like one, but its stem vowel is SHORT a everywhere except das and da. That is invisible in our unmacroned spelling and audible in verse, and it is why dare does not scan like amare. It also explains the compounds: because the vowel was weak it collapsed, and the compounds all went into the third conjugation with -dere, giving reddo, trado, condo, perdo and addo. Only circumdo and a couple of others kept the first conjugation pattern.

The perfect dedi is a reduplicated perfect, one of the oldest formations in the language, and the same shape shows up in sto, steti and in Greek.

It is a two-object verb: accusative of the thing, dative of the person. It also carries a shelf of idioms in which "give" is the wrong English. Poenas dare is to pay a penalty, not to hand one out. Manus dare is to surrender. Operam dare is to take pains, litteras dare is to post a letter, and in fugam dare is to put to flight. English took date, data, edition, tradition, surrender through French, and the -dote of antidote and anecdote through Greek.