dust: [OE] The notion ultimately underlying dust seems to be that of ‘smoke’ or ‘vapour’. It goes back to a prehistoric Indo-European base *dheu-, which also produced Latin fūmus and Sanskrit dhūma- ‘smoke’. A Germanic descendant of this, *dunstu-, picks up the idea of a cloud of fine particles being blown about like smoke, and is the basis of Norwegian dust ‘dust’ and duft ‘finely ground grain’, German duft ‘fragrance’ (from an earlier Middle High German tuft ‘vapour, dew’), and English dust.
dust (n.)
Old English dust, from Proto-Germanic *dunstaz (cognates: Old High German tunst "storm, breath," German Dunst "mist, vapor," Danish dyst "milldust," Dutch duist), from PIE *dheu- (1) "dust, smoke, vapor" (cognates: Sanskrit dhu- "shake," Latin fumus "smoke"). Meaning "that to which living matter decays" was in Old English, hence, figuratively, "mortal life."
dust (v.)
c. 1200, "to rise as dust;" later "to sprinkle with dust" (1590s) and "to rid of dust" (1560s); from dust (n.). Related: Dusted; dusting. Sense of "to kill" is U.S. slang first recorded 1938 (compare bite the dust under bite (v.)).
例文
1. Lights reflected off dust -covered walls creating a ghostly luminescence.
ライトはほこりだらけの壁に照らされ、青白い冷たい光を反射します。
2.The powdery dust rose in a cloud around him.
粉塵が彼の周りに舞い上がった。
3.In the last 30 years many cherished values have bitten the dust .
過去30年間で、多くの貴重な価値観が失われてきました。
4.Wind caught the sudden puff of dust and blew it inland.
風が勢いよくほこりを吹き出し、内陸に吹き飛ばした。
5.Many of the machines are gathering dust in basements.