modernchic
The One The Only
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AnotherIoanFan said:Okay...there's a challenge Modernchic...where does the term "bookworm" come from? I can't see much connection between a book and a worm! Unless it's because one could perhaps bury oneself in books?
Kathy
OK, for the expression bookworm (this is, I beileve, the origin of the word): There is a beetle, whose larvae (worm) eats cellulose. Books are one of its favorite munchies, but will also eat wooden furniture (so for those thrifters out there, check any used wooden furniture carefully for suspicious small holes before buying...especially if you have wooden floors!), wooden floors, so on. I have seen the damage these critters do firsthand...they basically bore into books leaving noticeable holes throughout a book. They often are in wooden furniture and sense a book resting on top of said furniture and just go through the top of the furniture and into the book....even through cloth hardback coverings. You can stop an infestation by putting the book in the deep freezer, but if they are in furniture, I am not sure how to treat that. Thus, a bookworm, and those who pore over books become equated with the beetle larvae. Many very old old old antique wooden furniture (say, from the medieval era and early Renaissance) have small worm holes from antiquity. So, hopefully, this sheds light on the mysterious bookworm.
