cast

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /kɑːst/, US /kæst/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English casten,^[2][3] borrowed from Old Norse kasta (“to throw”),^[4][3][5] a word of uncertain origin,^[4] related to Old Norse kǫs “heap”.^[3][2] Merriam-Webster suggests a possible link with Latin gerere (“to bear, carry on”).^[2] The noun comes partly from the verb and partly from Old Norse kast “a throw”.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To throw: probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle,^[3] and about 1200 in Etymonline.^[4] The OED's first example is from about 1230.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In the sense “to throw” it replaced Old English weorpan, the ancestor of warp, and has itself been largely replaced by throw, except of fishing lines and glances and in many special senses.^[4][5] From about 1300 it meant “to give out; to shed; to throw to the ground”, and also “to calculate, reckon”; to calculate astrologically is from the late 14th century.^[4] Casting metal in a mould is from the late 15th century,^[4] and to distribute the parts of a play among actors is from 1711.^[4] Of votes it is from 1840 in American English,^[4] or 1871 in the OED.^[6] The noun first meant “a throw”, especially of dice, which led to the figurative “chance, fortune”;^[4][6] the idea of the form a thing takes once thrown gave the senses “arrangement, design, appearance, bearing”.^[3] A tinge or shade of colour is from about 1600,^[4] and the actors of a play from the 1630s.^[4] The OED lists 42 noun senses and 83 verb senses.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – verb, to throw.^[4][3]
• c. 1250 – noun, a throw.^[3]
• c. 1300 – to shed; to reckon.^[4]
• late 15th century – to shape in a mould.^[4]
• c. 1600 – a shade of colour.^[4]
• 1630s – the actors in a play.^[4]
• 1711 – to assign parts to actors.^[4]
• 1840 – to cast a vote.^[4]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To throw or fling: to cast a net.
2. To direct: to cast a glance, to cast doubt.
3. To shed or throw off, as a snake its skin.
4. To give a vote.
5. To choose actors for a play or film, or a role for an actor.
6. To shape molten metal or plaster in a mould.
7. To add up or calculate; to draw up a horoscope.

Noun

1. An act of throwing, especially of a fishing line or dice.
2. The actors in a play or film.
3. An object made in a mould; a rigid plaster case for a broken limb.
4. A slight tinge of colour.
5. Appearance, kind or quality: a cast of mind.

Word family

• castability
• castable
• broadcast
• colorcast
• caster
• casting
• downcast

Related words

• castaway
• outcast
• forecast
• caste

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press