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Grub

Posted by ESC on May 21, 2001

In Reply to: Grub posted by Bruce Kahl on May 21, 2001

: I heard a word in a cop show the other nite--"...by the way, thanks for the grub."--referring to a just finished meal in a restaurant.
: Anybody know the origin of "grub"?

: There is a Middle English word "grubben" and Old English "grafan" meaning "to dig" which can be linked to the word "grave" as in final resting place.

: Webster's has grub as a verb as "to dig in the ground especially for something that is difficult to find or extract"--so could "grub" be digging around in the dirt for a potato or carrot?

: Anybody?
: thanx
: bk

"Whistlin' Dixie" by Robert Hendrickson has "GRUB UP -- To dig out. 'I been grubbing up a clump of willows outen my spring pasture for fifteen years.' (William Faulkner, 'The Hamlet' 1940)

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