I think this one started in the 1980’s, during the “foodie” period (I cringe whenever I hear this usage):

“I’d love to come to your dinner party.  What’s on the menu?”

“I am going to do a pork loin in pomegranate sauce, a nice salad with raspberry vinaigrette and some au gratin potatoes.”  (The “nice” is always in there somewhere.)

I don’t know, using the word “do” to mean “make” or prepare” (a dish) strikes me as overblown, presumptuous and pompous.  Maybe it was cool once, but now it just sounds assholian.

(Though, two of the three online dictionaries I checked say that “do” can be used to mean “make” or “prepare” [a food].)

Perhaps, when someone says, “Hold on, I have to shut the lights,” it’s just a “regionalism.”  Though, frankly, “regionalism” is usually just shorthand for “Some folks from certain parts of the country speak incorrectly.”

Recently, I’ve heard “shut” used incorrectly in a different sense:  “The economic downturn has resulted in some stores being shut in the northeast part of that state.”

Now, the way I see it, unless you are “shutting” one of the following (I’m sure I’m missing some, but here’s a list), you need to use a preposition with the word “shut”:

— Door, window, gate, curtains, book, magazine, mouth, eyes.

You don’t shut the lights, and you don’t shut a business, a company, a factory, a pharmacy, a salon, a bar, a store, a school.

You might shut those things down (or shut off the lights), but you don’t shut them.  Simply and eloquently, you close those things (or, you may even close them down).  You may shut the gate at the school, but you don’t shut the school.

I think I know where the confusion lies.  With all the talk about businesses going belly up these days, we hear that certain businesses, plants, and factories are being shuttered (shutter:  verb transitive – to cause to cease operations; close down):  “They plan to shutter the facility next Friday.”

That’s fine.  But, not, “They plan to shut the factory.”  (Though, they might correctly shut the factory doors.)

And, “They plan to shut down the factory,” is just fine.

Comingle.

Or, co-mingle.

Or, commingle.

Do we need any of these three “words”?

After all, what does “mingle” mean?

Couldn’t we just say “mix”?  Or, “combine”?