does anyone know the origin of the word "doughnut"?

google doughnut +origin [I'm feeling lucky]
yields
http://www.wordorigins.org/wordord.htm

(I'm trying to gently suggest here that this is a very basic search which anyone could perform on one's own behest.)

Welcome aboard, Gunther. Pay no attention to tsuwm; he gets that way from time to time. We are delighted to have another lawyer on the board. We are delighted to have a Louisiannan on the board .. and will be even more delighted if you like food!

I thought it was from doughknot since another way to prepare them was to tie the strips of dough in a knot. By the time one side was done it was puffed up enough to flip over by itself which made the busy homemakers life that much easier.
PS welcome aboard

I would have thought that applied to pretzels, not doughnuts... ;)

See http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20010627.html for further info.

Some say that it was the Dutch who introduced doughnuts to the American continent, in what would eventually become New York City. If that is true, one wonders why the Dutch name for them didn't prevail. Every morning, several million New Yorkers would stop on the way to work to enjoy their oliekoek ("oil cake") and coffee.