dust

Etymology

From Middle English dust, doust, from Old English dūst (“dust, dried earth reduced to powder; other dry material reduced to powder”), from the fusion of Proto-Germanic *dustą (“dust”) and *dunstą (“mist, dust, evaporation”), both from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂- (“to smoke, raise dust”). Cognate with Scots dust, dist (“dust”), Dutch duist (“pollen, dust”) and dons (“down, fuzz”), German Dust (“dust”) and Dunst (“haze”), Swedish dust (“dust”), Icelandic dust (“dust”), Latin fūmus (“smoke, steam”). Also related to Swedish dun (“down, fluff”), Icelandic dúnn (“down, fluff”). See down.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dʌst/
• Rhymes: -ʌst

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: dost

Noun

dust (countable and uncountable, plural dusts)

1. (uncountable) Fine, dry particles of matter found in the air and covering the surface of objects, typically consisting of soil lifted up by the wind, pollen, hair, etc.
2. (countable) The act of cleaning by dusting.
   • 2010, Joan Busfield, Michael Paddon, Thinking About Children: Sociology and Fertility in Post-War England (page 150)

     […] once they start school, I mean you can do a room out one day, the next day it only needs a dust, doesn't it?

3. (obsolete) A single particle of earth or other material.
   • Shakespeare

     to touch a dust of England's ground

4. The earth, as the resting place of the dead.
   • Bible, Job vii. 21

     I shall sleep in the dust.

5. The earthy remains of bodies once alive; the remains of the human body.
   • Tennyson

     And you may carve a shrine about my dust.

6. (figuratively) Something worthless.
   • Shakespeare

     And by the merit of vile gold, dross, dust.

7. (figuratively) A low or mean condition.
   • Bible, 1 Sam. ii. 8

     [God] raiseth up the poor out of the dust.

8. (slang, dated) cash; money (in reference to gold dust).
9. (mathematics) A totally disconnected set of points with a fractal structure.

Verb

dust (third-person singular simple present dusts, present participle dusting, simple past and past participle dusted)

1. (transitive) To remove dust from.
   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 12, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     There were many wooden chairs for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker armchairs with red cloth cushions for superior people. From the packing-cases had emerged some Indian clubs, […], and all these articles […] made a scattered and untidy decoration that Mrs. Clough assiduously dusted and greatly cherished.

   The cleaning lady needs a stool to dust the cupboard.

2. (intransitive) To remove dust; to clean by removing dust.

   Dusting always makes me cough.

3. (intransitive) Of a bird, to cover itself in sand or dry, dusty earth.
4. (transitive) To spray or cover something with fine powder or liquid.

   The mother dusted her baby's bum with talcum powder.

5. (chiefly US slang) To leave; to rush off.
   • 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin 2011, page 75:

     He added in a casual tone: ‘The girl can dust. I'd like to talk to you a little, soldier.’

6. To reduce to a fine powder; to levigate.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Sprat to this entry?)

See also

• vacuum cleaner

Anagrams

• duts, stud

Alternative forms

• doust, duste, doste, dyste

Etymology

Forms with a long vowel are from Old English dūst, from Proto-Germanic *dunstą. Forms with a short vowel are from Old English *dust, from Proto-Germanic *dustą.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dust/, /duːst/

Noun

dust (uncountable)

1. dust, powder
2. dirt, grit
3. (figuratively) iota, modicum

Etymology 1

Back-formation of dustet, from Old Norse dust (dust particle)

Etymology 2

From Old Norse dust.

References

• “dust” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Etymology 1

From Old Norse dust (dust particle), compare with dustete

Etymology 2

From Old Norse dust.

References

• “dust” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *dunstą (“dust, vapor”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰew- (“vapor, smoke”). Akin to Hindi धुआं (dhu'āṁ, “smoke”), Middle Dutch dost, donst, duust (Dutch dons, duist), Old High German tunst, dunst (German Dunst), Low German dust, Icelandic dust, Norwegian dust, Danish dyst.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /duːst/

Noun

dūst n

1. dust; powder; mill dust

Noun

dust n

1. dust particle

References

• dust in Geir T. Zoëga (1910) A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press

Noun

dust m (genitive singular dust, no plural)

1. dust