discard

Etymology

It is probably formed from English dis- (“away”) + card (“playing card”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} literally "to throw a card away".^[3][6] The noun card comes, through Old French carte and Latin charta (“paper, a writing”), from Ancient Greek χάρτης (khártēs, “layer of papyrus”).^[3] The OED compares Spanish descartar (before 1435) and Portuguese descartar (1544), used in a similar range of senses, and notes that although the card-game sense is not the earliest in English, the source of the first quotation mentions card play in the sentence before.^[2] The Shorter Oxford sees the model of the obsolete French descarter.^[8] Weekley rejected the derivation from the playing card, since a verb so formed could only mean to remove from a card, and took the word from Old French descarter (“to scatter”), a variant of escarter, modern écarter, from Vulgar Latin *exquartō (“to quarter out”), from Latin quartus (“fourth”).^[9] Etymonline records decard in the card-playing sense by the 1550s.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To reject something no longer wanted, to cast it aside: 1578.^[2] Barnhart's earliest record, from before 1586, has the sense to discharge or dismiss,^[4][10] and Merriam-Webster dates the word to about 1586.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The card-playing sense, to throw a card out of the hand, is recorded from 1591, in Florio.^[2][10] Etymonline takes it as the basic meaning and finds the figurative "cast off, dismiss" slightly earlier, in the 1580s.^[3] From 1589 to 1858 the verb also meant to dismiss someone from service or office,^[2] and Johnson (1755) gave only that and the card sense.^[12] The noun followed in 1663, for the act of discarding;^[2] in card games it is recorded from 1719 for the act and for the cards thrown out,^[2] though Barnhart dates it to 1742, in an edition of Hoyle's treatise on whist.^[10] The sense "anything discarded" dates from 1888, in Stevenson,^[2] and the phrase into the discard, into oblivion, chiefly American, from 1898.^[2][8]

Timeline

• 1578 – to reject, cast aside.^[2]
• before 1586 – to discharge, dismiss.^[10]
• 1591 – to throw out a card from the hand.^[2][10]
• 1663 – noun, the act of discarding.^[2]
• 1719 – noun, a card or cards thrown out.^[2]
• 1888 – noun, anything discarded.^[2]
• 1898 – into the discard, into oblivion.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To get rid of something as useless or unwanted; to cast aside: He discarded the broken umbrella at the station.^[13][11][2]
2. (cards) To throw out a card from one's hand.^[13][11][2]
3. (cards) To play a card that is neither of the suit led nor a trump, when one cannot follow suit.^[13][11]
4. (obsolete, 1589–1858) To dismiss someone from employment or service.^[2][12]

Noun

1. A person or thing that has been cast aside or rejected.^[13][11][2]
2. (cards) A discarded card, or the cards discarded.^[13][11][2]
3. The act of discarding.^[13][11][2]
4. into the discard (chiefly US): into oblivion or disuse.^[2][8]

Word family

• discardable
• discarder
• undiscarded

Related words

• card
• chart
• charter
• carte

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 u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins