sawdust

Etymology

It is formed from English saw + dust,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} from the toothed cutting tool and the noun.^[3][2] Saw is from Old English sagu, from Proto-Germanic *sagō (“a cutting tool”), from Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”);^[3] dust is from Old English dūst, from *dunstaz.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Wood in small particles, produced by sawing: 1530, in Palsgrave's French–English dictionary.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates it to about 1528,^[4] and Etymonline and Dictionary.com to the 1520s.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined it as "dust made by the attrition of the saw", quoting Wiseman's Surgery on sawdust of bone and Mortimer's Husbandry on rotten sawdust as a manure;^[7] the OED records the wider sense, dust of any material produced by sawing, from Wiseman in 1672.^[2] Because sawdust was strewn on the floors of circuses and other places of entertainment, and in the United States in the arenas of travelling evangelists, the word was used of such places from 1864;^[2][6] Merriam-Webster has the attributive sense of an enterprise conducted under a tent, such as a circus or revival meeting.^[4] The sawdust trail, an Americanism of the 1910s, was named from the sawdust-covered aisles of revival meetings.^[5][4] Since sawdust was also used to stuff dolls, it came to stand for flimsy filling or lack of substance, recorded from before 1873.^[2][4][6] The verb, to strew with sawdust, dates from 1882.^[2] In slang, sawdust meant flattery or insincerity in British use from 1884, and in American use dynamite (from 1904), sugar (from 1908) and, in prison, bread (from 1931).^[8]

Timeline

• 1530 – wood in small particles, produced by sawing.^[2][4]
• 1672 – dust of any material produced by sawing.^[2]
• 1864 – sawdust strewn on the floor of a circus or other place of entertainment.^[2]
• before 1873 – figurative, of flimsy stuffing or lack of substance.^[2]
• 1882 – verb, to strew with sawdust.^[2]
• 1884 – slang, flattery or insincerity.^[8]
• 1904 – American underworld slang, dynamite.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Small particles of wood, or sometimes stone, produced by sawing: The workshop floor was thick with sawdust.^[4][2][6]
2. Flimsy stuffing, or something without real substance.^[4][2]
3. Sawdust as strewn on the floor of a circus ring, a pub or, formerly, a revival tent.^[6][2]

Adjective

1. Covered or stuffed with sawdust: a sawdust doll.^[4]
2. Of or connected with a circus or revival meeting held under a tent.^[4][2]
3. Having no real substance; hollow.^[4]

Verb

1. To strew or cover with sawdust.^[4][2]

Word family

• sawdusty
• sawdust trail

Related words

• saw
• dust

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com