XPost: alt.usage.english, alt.english.usage   
   From: vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid   
      
   Le 29/08/2025 à 11:11, Richard Heathfield a écrit :   
   > On 29/08/2025 11:08, Hibou wrote:   
   >> Le 29/08/2025 à 10:18, Steve Hayes a écrit :   
   >>>   
   >>> Does anyone here have access to the online Oxford dictionary, and if   
   >>> so, does it say anything about this usage. [...]   
   >>   
   >> I can see nothing relevant. (I think J. P. Gilliver's tame   
   >> lexicographer has already indicated that there isn't anything.)   
   >   
   > I can't help wondering. What do lexicographers actually eat? And do you   
   > need a licence?   
      
      
   I think they may be related to bookworms, and we know what they eat. It   
   would appear that both species excrete dust....   
      
   I remember noticing archaeological layers of dust on some of the books   
   in our local library - this was in the English literature section, and,   
   as I recall, Sterne was sleeping under a particularly heavy blanket. (I   
   didn't disturb him.) I did wonder whether a chemical analysis might   
   reflect the history of the town's air, with coal dust, lead from petrol,   
   and diesel particles in different strata....   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)