# Name for eraser shavings??!! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 21, 2002, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-for-eraser-shavings/110171 "2002-05-21T20:51:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![irishman\_connelly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@irishman\_connelly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishman_connelly)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2002, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-for-eraser-shavings/110171/1 "2002-05-21T20:51:29Z")
This is driving me insane! Could someone PLEASE come up with the name of the little leavings left after using an eraser? Thanks in advance… ---
**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2002, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-for-eraser-shavings/110171/2 "2002-05-21T21:38:24Z")
Well, back when I took drafting and engineering graphics (back in the days before such things were done on computers) we called them “eraser crumbs”. We had special brushes we would use to clean them off of our drawings too. ---
**Author:** ![scout1222](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/34f0e0/32.png) [@scout1222](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scout1222)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2002, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-for-eraser-shavings/110171/3 "2002-05-21T21:44:41Z")
Rich Hall, of _Not Necessarily the News_ created a sniglet for this - I believe it was **erdu**. ---
**Author:** ![Com2Kid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@Com2Kid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Com2Kid)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2002, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-for-eraser-shavings/110171/4 "2002-05-21T21:48:03Z")
Eraser Dust. ::shrugs:: What I have always heard them called and called them. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2002, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-for-eraser-shavings/110171/5 "2002-05-22T00:55:50Z")
We always used to call them “droppings.” Not sure exactly why. ---
**Author:** ![tigergirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3e96dc/32.png) [@tigergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tigergirl)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2002, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-for-eraser-shavings/110171/6 "2002-05-22T01:04:51Z")
At Primary School, we used to have desks with a little ditch in it which we used to collect these. We called them “Rubberings” ---
**Author:** ![bbeaty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c0e974/32.png) [@bbeaty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbeaty)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2002, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-for-eraser-shavings/110171/7 "2002-05-23T05:28:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by irishman\_connelly \* > \*\*This is driving me insane! Could someone PLEASE come up with the name of the little leavings left after using an eraser? Thanks in advance… \*\* If you rub your palms together to create little black rolls of dead skin, they’re called BLATTIES (after Dr. David Greenblatt, named in his “honor” during his early hacker days as an MIT student.) Call 'em “eraser blatties.” ---
**Author:** ![Forbin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5e9695/32.png) [@Forbin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Forbin)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2002, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-for-eraser-shavings/110171/8 "2002-05-23T06:24:16Z")
Scum-X ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2002, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-for-eraser-shavings/110171/9 "2002-05-23T14:36:25Z")
I just posed this question (inspired by this thread) to: Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association Consumer Information Web Site [http://www.wima.org/index.html](http://www.wima.org/index.html) Heck, maybe there is a name. If “little plastic cap at the end of your shoelaces” has a name like “aglet”… …maybe “stuff that rolls off your eraser when using” can be called “rublets”. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2002, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-for-eraser-shavings/110171/10 "2002-05-23T22:06:57Z")
A Scum-X pad is a sock-like lump filled with eraser crumbs. You use it to clean up pencil drawings in drafting. One squeezes the sock over the drawing, then rubs the “sock” over the paper. Not perfect, but better than nothing to get rid of smudges. “Scum bag” jokes are free… ~VOW