caster

Etymology

It is formed from English cast + -er, an agent noun from the verb.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The Middle English noun was caster, also kaster, from casten (“to cast”).^[7][6] Cast itself comes from a Scandinavian source akin to Old Norse kasta (“to throw”).^[4] The small bottle was named on the notion of something that throws out its contents,^[4] and the wheel after an old sense of cast, "to turn or veer".^[4][2] For these two senses the word is also spelled castor; the OED and Barnhart think this spelling arose from confusion, probably with Latin castor (“beaver”), or from an attempt to make the word look Latin.^[2][3] The OED notes that this spelling had become the usual one for them, although it obscures the derivation.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who casts or throws: before 1382, in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible.^[2][3] The MED's quotations include a caster of darts, a thrower or slinger, and an interpreter of dreams.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The word was used for anyone who casts in any sense of the verb;^[2] from 1535 it meant specifically one who casts metal, a founder.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "a thrower" and also as one who calculates fortunes.^[8] The small vessel with a perforated top, for sprinkling pepper or sugar, appears in 1676,^[2][3][4] and in the plural it came to include the cruets for oil and vinegar and the stand that holds them.^[5][9] The small swivelling wheel under a piece of furniture is dated 1748 by Barnhart and Etymonline,^[3][4] and the OED's first quotation is from before 1800.^[2] Later trade uses include a worker shovelling coal into ships on the River Wear (1793), a maker of casts and moulds (1921), and a type-casting machine (1902).^[2][5] Caster sugar, finely granulated sugar, is the sugar sprinkled from a caster.^[5] Old thieves' cant had caster for a cloak (1567, in Harman),^[2][10] and in 19th-century colloquial English a caster was something cast off, such as a horse no longer fit for the cavalry.^[2][10] From the wheel came an American verb caster, to mount a wheel so that it swivels.^[6]

Timeline

• before 1382 – one who casts or throws.^[2][3]
• 1535 – one who casts metal, a founder.^[2]
• 1567 – in thieves' cant, a cloak.^[2][10]
• 1676 – a small vessel with a perforated top for sprinkling pepper, sugar and the like.^[2][3] Etymonline dates it to the 1670s.^[4]
• 1748 – a small swivelling wheel under furniture.^[3][4] The OED's first quotation is from before 1800.^[2]
• 1859 – something cast off or rejected.^[2][10]
• 1902 – a type-casting machine.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person or thing that casts: a caster of nets, a caster of spells.^[6][9][11]
2. A worker who shapes molten metal, clay or a similar material in a mould.^[6][2]
3. A machine that casts type.^[6][5]
4. Also castor: a small wheel on a swivel, fixed under a piece of furniture or other heavy object so that it can be moved easily.^[9][11][5]
5. Also castor: a small bottle or shaker with a perforated top for a condiment such as pepper or sugar; also a stand holding a set of such containers.^[9][11][5]

Verb

1. To mount a wheel so that it swivels freely; to fit furniture with casters.^[6]

Word family

• casterless

Related words

• cast
• castor
• caster sugar
• forecast
• broadcast

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
11. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt