Etymologically
Log in

discard

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 21:01. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • UK: /dɪsˈkɑːd/, /dɪˈskɑːd/[1]
  • US: /dɪsˈkɑɹd/, /dɪˈskɑɹd/[1]

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

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