"gold dust" -- fig.1739

[Joel S. Berson]

At 3/27/2010 07:44 AM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>I do want to point out that OED /does/ contain a reference to figurative
>use ...
>/fig/. *1837* H. MARTINEAU /Soc. Amer/. II. 368 The day will come when
>their eyes will be cleansed from the gold-dust which blinds them.

I apologize -- I don't know how I missed this, which the OED
explicitly calls "fig."

However, my 1739 quotation does antedate the OED, and by a century:

>Boston News-Letter; Date: From Thursday January 4, to Thursday
>January 11, 1739; Issue: 1816; Page: [1], col. 1.
>
>Advices, London, October 11, 1738.
>
>Some of the High Germans seem now to have rubb'd the French Gold-Dust
>out of their Eyes, & begin to see that the French are but lukewarm in
>the Emperor's Interest in the pretended mediation with the Ottoman
>Port; a wonderful Discovery this! that a Prince of Bourbon should be
>a feint Friend to the House of Austria; When were the Galls ever true
>to the Germans?

Joel

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