dust bunnies
noun phrase (informal)

-  a ball of dust that forms under furniture or on floors that have not been cleaned

- a mass of fine, dry particles of matter, especially hair and skin particles, that is formed by static electricity

Cambridge Dictionary / The American Heritage Dictionary

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WORD ORIGIN

Although the origin of “dust bunny” is unknown, the problem is universal – different languages use different metaphors:

- Bengali (Dhulo Khorgosh) = dust rabbits

- Dutch (stofpluizen) = lints* of fluff

- English = dust bunny

- Finnish (villakoira) = poodle wool

- French (moutons) = sheep

- German (Wollmäuse) = wool mice

- Hebrew = dust curls

- Hungarian (porcica) = dust kitten

- Italian (gatti di polvere) = dust cats

- Norwegian (hybelkaniner) lodging bunnies

- Polish (koty) = cats

- Portuguese (cotão) = lint*

- Spanish (pelusa) = lint*

- Swedish (dammråttor) = dust rats

*lint = Fussel

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FIVE FACTS ABOUT DUST

1. People have been trying to get rid of household dust for ages, and the first vacuum cleaner was invented in 1901. This vacuum was so large it was horse drawn, had to be parked outside, and ran on gasoline.

2. The Sahara desert is the largest source of dust in the entire world. 770 million tons of dust from this desert blows across the Atlantic Ocean to South America, where it fertilizes the Ocean and the Amazon rainforest.

3. Each year the Earth gains about 40,000 tons of cosmic dust that falls on it from space in the form of micrometeorites.

4. Dust particles have been used in forensics to solve crimes, with the earliest use of this technique dating back to the early 1900s.

5. Dust is responsible for beautiful sunrises and sunsets, as the dust in the atmosphere absorbs blue and green colors but allows the orange and red colors through. This creates the colors that we see during a sunrise or sunset.

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SMUGGLE OWAD into an English conversation, say something like:

"Can someone clean up the conference room before the visitors arrive? We have a DUST BUNNY problem in there!"

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HERZLICHEN DANK to all readers helping me keep OWAD alive with single or monthly donations at:

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and,

Paul Smith, IBAN: DE75 7316 0000 0002 5477 40