"dusted" is US slang, not just San Francisco. Likewise "dust-up,"
which has a much wider social range.
Mark
At 08:20 PM 8/30/2007, you wrote:
>I should say that 'dusted' in the SF sense refers to being reduced instantly
>to one of those little piles of dust you see in shows like Star Trek. Room
>for misunderstanding if the SF heavy says "shut up or I'll dust you" and the
>heroine says "ooh, will it tickle?"
>
>P
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> > Behalf Of Robin Hamilton
> > Sent: 31 August 2007 00:15
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: Dust Bunnits
> >
> > > Out here in the savage west, a 'dust-up' is the way one politely refers
>to
> > > a
> > > serious confrontation. When someone gets shot, that is killed, they been
> > > 'dusted.'
> >
> > That's interesting, Stephen. John Brunner uses "dusted" in that way in
>the
> > SF novel _The Shockwave Rider_. I'd always assumed (Brunner is a Brit)
>that
> > it was a term he'd coined, *from "dust up", etc., but maybe he had the
>sense
> > you draw attention to there in mind.
> >
> > R.
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