dust [OE] Our word dust is related to Dutch duist ‘chaff, meal dust, bran’, and the ancient meaning appears to have been ‘material that rises in a cloud of smoke’. Various biblical uses of dust have settled in the language. To shake the dust off your feet [OE] derives from the Gospel of Matthew: ‘And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.’ The phrase dust and ashes [E20th], used to convey a great sense of disappointment or disillusion, is found in the books of Genesis and Job. It refers back to the legend of the Sodom apple or Dead Sea fruit, whose attractive appearance tempted people but which tasted only of dust and ashes when eaten. A dusty answer is a curt and unhelpful reply. The expression comes from the 1862 poem ‘Modern Love’ by George Meredith: ‘Ah, what a dusty answer gets the soul / When hot for certainties in this our life!’