new term?

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:25 AM -0400 10/2/00, Bethany K. Dumas wrote:
>worm dirt
>
>I heard it for the first time this morning when I stopped for coffee and
>newspapers at Weigels, one of our 24 hour convenience store chains. I
>asked the nature of a product called Xtreme and was told that it was
>"chewing tobacco -- you know, word dirt." Then the cashier showed me what
>it looks like: worm dirt. The cashier asked another employee if he called
>it that too. His answer was ambiguous.
>
>Bethany

Actually I think I prefer the version you gave in the quotation.
"Word dirt" sounds like detritus from some of our exchanges--"That's
not a real lexical item, it's just word dirt."

larry