Don - Definition and Overview

There are several rivers named Don:

• Don River, Russia, one of the main rivers of Russia.

• River Don, Scotland, a river in Aberdeenshire which rises in the Grampians and flows 131 km (82 miles) eastwards to the North Sea at Aberdeen.

• River Don, England, a river in South Yorkshire which rises in the Pennines and flows 112 km (70 miles) eastwards to join the River Ouse shortly before it, in turn, joins the Humber.

• Don River, Toronto is one of two major rivers framing Toronto against Lake Ontario.

The word Don also stands for:

• Don, Nord, a commune of the Nord département in northern France

• Danu, the mother goddess in Insular Brythonic mythology.

• an abbreviated form of the male Christian name Donald.

• in English universities, a head, fellow or tutor of a college.

• in Spanish and Italian, Don is a title of respect prefixed to a man's Christian name, e.g. Don Juan, Don Quijote, Don Bosco, or in the operas Don Carlos, Don Giovanni, Don Pasquale, etc. Hence, it is also a (rather old-fashioned) slang name for a Spaniard. The word appears in Henry Newbolt's poem Drake's Drum: "If the dons sight Devon, I'll quit the port of heaven...". It is abbreviated as D.. Don is also commonly used as a general term for mafia bosses.

• An Ashkenazi variant transliteration of Dan.