Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
"DUNSTAN" is a name that signifies or is derived from: "a dark stone". |
Date "DUNSTAN" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Literature | Dunstan (St.). Patron saint of goldsmiths, being himself a noted worker in gold. He is represented generally in pontifical robes, but carrying a pair of pincers in his right hand. The pontificals refer to his office as Archbishop of Canterbury, and the pincers to the legend of his holding the Devil by the nose till he promised never to tempt him again. St. Dunstan and the devil. Dunstan was a painter, jeweller, and blacksmith. Being expelled from court, he built a cell near Glastonbury church, and there he worked at his handicrafts. It was in this cell that tradition says the Devil had a gossip with the saint through the lattice window. Dunstan went on talking till his tongs were red hot, when he turned round suddenly and caught his Satanic Majesty by the nose. One can Trace in this legend the notion that all knowledge belonged to the Black Art; that the "saints" are always more than conquerors over the spirits of evil; and the singular cunning which our forefathers so delighted to honour. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
He began his career at Glastonbury, becoming abbot in 945. The abbey flourished under his administration, with a substantial extension of the irrigation system on the surrounding Somerset levels. Following the accession of King Edwy of England, he became less influential and went overseas to Flanders. On his return, in 957, he imported Benedictine customs, becoming bishop of Worcester and London in 959, and in 961 becameArchbishop of Canterbury, under King Edgar of England. Having crowned Edgar in 973, he performed the same service for his successor, Edward the Martyr, and later for Ethelred the Unready. The service is still used as the basis for contemporary British coronations. He died in 988 and was canonised in 1029
He functions as the patron saint of goldsmiths, and himself worked as a blacksmith, painter, and jeweler. English literature contains many references to him, for example in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, and in this folk rhyme:
St Dunstan, as the story goes, Once pull'd the devil by the nose With red-hot tongs, which made him roar, That he was heard three miles or more.
From this the tongs have become a symbol of St Dunstan and are featured in the arms of Tower Hamlets.
Another story relates how Dunstan nailed a horseshoe to the Devil's hoof when he was aksed to reshod the Devil's horse. The Devil was only allowed to go once he had promised never to enter a place where a horseshoe is over the door. This is claimed as the origin of the lucky horsshoe.
The Church marks his feast day on May 19.
Churches dedicated to St Dunstan
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Dunstan."
Crosswords: DUNSTAN |
| Specialty definitions using "DUNSTAN": Devil to Pay and no Pitch Hot ♦ Horse-shoes ♦ Peg too Low, Public-house Signs ♦ Rising in the Air. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | [Edgar M. Dunstan, M.D.]. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| "DUNSTAN" is generally used as a noun (proper) -- approximately 94.29% of the time. "DUNSTAN" is used about 35 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (proper) | 94.29% | 33 | 60,273 |
| Noun (singular) | 5.71% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 35 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes the usage of "DUNSTAN" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified. |
| Name | Usage/Gender | Usage per 100 million Persons | Rank in USA |
| Dunstan | Last name | 400 | 20,932 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits. | |||
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "DUNSTAN": Dunstan-in-the, Dunstan-in-the-east. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
dunstan | 8 |
saint dunstan | 6 |
st dunstan | 5 |
darren dunstan | 4 |
bernard dunstan | 4 |
dunstan houston | 4 |
dunstan millbrae st | 2 |
dunstan middle school | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-d-n-n-s-t-u" | |
-1 letter: daunts, suntan. | |
-2 letters: adust, aunts, daunt, dauts, dunts, stand, sunna, tunas. | |
-3 letters: ands, ants, anus, aunt, daut, duns, dunt, dust, nans, nuns, nuts, sand, stud, stun, sunn, tads, tans, taus, tuna, tuns, utas. | |
-4 letters: ads, and, ant, dun, nan, nun, nus, nut, sad, sat, sau, sun, tad, tan, tas, tau, tun, uns, uta, uts. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-d-n-n-s-t-u" | |
+2 letters: inundates, nonadults, suntanned, unstained. | |
+3 letters: astounding, candlenuts, fundaments, grandaunts, insinuated, inundators, outspanned, transuding, underpants, understand, unfastened, unhandiest, unstrained, upstanding. | |
+4 letters: adjunctions, antistudent, denaturants, denudations, foundations, inductances, indurations, inundations, mundanities, nodulations, outstanding, subdominant, transducing, turnarounds, understands, undulations, uninsulated, unsteadying, untarnished. | |
+5 letters: adjournments, antependiums, astoundingly, conductances, countermands, edutainments, fecundations, fundamentals, mountainside, noncustodial, nongraduates, subdominants, transductant, transduction, transudation, understating, undertakings, undertenants, undesignated, unrestrained, unsanctioned, unsteadiness, untowardness, untranslated. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)44 55 4E 53 54 41 4E |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)-.. ..- -. ... - .- -. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000100 01010101 01001110 01010011 01010100 01000001 01001110 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)D U N S T A N |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0044 0055 004E 0053 0054 0041 004E |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)38554853543548 |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Commercial 4. Images: Photo Album | 5. Usage Frequency 6. Names: Frequency 7. Expressions 8. Expressions: Internet | 9. Anagrams 10. Orthography 11. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
