'do-gooder' originates from English, a compound of the verb 'do' + the adjective 'good' with the agentive suffix '-er' (one who does).

'do-gooder' developed as a compound in English in the 19th century; it appeared initially as a descriptive phrase (one who does good) and later stabilized in spelling as 'do-gooder', with increasing use in informal and sometimes pejorative senses in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Initially it meant 'a person who does good deeds' (neutral/positive), but over time it often took on a pejorative sense of 'a well-intentioned but naive or meddlesome person.'