A female deer, or in legal/official documents, a placeholder name used when the actual name is unknown (as in 'John Doe').
From Old English 'da' or 'do,' related to Germanic languages. The word has been used to describe female deer since before 1000 CE. In legal contexts, 'John Doe' and 'Jane Doe' became standard placeholders by the 1600s, possibly because they were common names at the time.
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