stäuben

Stäuben is a German verb derived from the noun Staub (dust). In contemporary usage it has two main senses. One refers to the production or dispersion of dust when objects are moved or disturbed. The other, far more common in everyday language, is the activity of removing dust from surfaces, which occurs in the standard form abstauben (dusting off) as a separable-prefix verb.

Etymology and related forms indicate that Stäuben shares its origin with Staub and belongs to the class of German verbs built from nouns with the -en suffix. The most frequent cleaning usage is expressed with the prefixed form abstauben, which means to dust off or to wipe dust away from furniture, shelves, or other items.

Usage and examples: In typical cleaning contexts, abstauben is used: Ich staube das Regal ab. This means I dust the shelf off. The bare form stauben is far less common in modern standard German and is generally encountered in older or regional language, where it may describe surfaces that have become dusty or dust-producing actions in a broader sense. In everyday instruction and manuals, the emphasis is on abstauben for the act of removing dust, rather than on stauben as a standalone cleaning action.

See also: Staub, Abstauben, Staubentstehung.