overcast

Etymology

It is formed from English over- + cast,^[2][3][4][5] first as the verb overcasten.^[6][7] The prefix goes back to Old English ofer,^[3] and the second element came from a Scandinavian source akin to Old Norse kasta (“to throw”).^[3] The adjective is the past participle of the verb,^[2][3][6][4] and the noun was formed from the prefix and the noun cast, after the verb or the phrase “to cast over”.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To overthrow or upset: about 1230, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[2] Etymonline likewise says the early 13th century, but gives first the senses of placing something over or across, and of covering.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense of throwing down is the oldest; it is now rare, though Merriam-Webster Unabridged keeps it as archaic.^[2][6] About 1300, in a life of St Thomas Becket, the verb was used both of cloud covering the sky and of darkening in a figurative way.^[2] Weekley takes "to cover, as with a garment" as the first idea and notes that the word survives only of the sky, citing ovyr caste in the Promptorium Parvulorum.^[8][2] Chaucer used it once, for covering over and darkening.^[9] The past participle of this sense became the adjective we now know: Etymonline dates that to about 1300, Merriam-Webster Unabridged to 1536 and the OED to 1616.^[3][6][2] From 1637 the noun was a covering layer, especially of cloud,^[2][6] and meteorologists now use both adjective and noun for a sky more than 95 per cent covered;^[10] the Shorter Oxford also records the aviation sense of cloud that forces reliance on instruments.^[4] A separate line of use is the needlework term for stitching over a raw edge.^[4][2] In dialect the verb was still used in the sense "overturn" in Lanarkshire and Lincolnshire, and in Scotland and northern England, with forms such as owerkest, for clouding over.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1230 – to overthrow, to upset.^[2]
• c. 1300 – to cover the sky with cloud; to darken or overshadow.^[2]
• 1440 – to cover or overlay something.^[2]
• c. 1475 – intransitive, to become covered with cloud.^[2]
• 1494 – noun, an act of casting something over or down (Scottish, obsolete).^[2]
• 1611 – in bowls, to throw beyond the target.^[2]
• 1616 – adjective, of the sky or weather, clouded over.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the adjective to 1536.^[6]
• 1637 – noun, a covering layer, especially of cloud.^[2][6]
• before 1672 – adjective, in needlework, sewn over an edge, especially in overcast stitch.^[2]
• 1867 – noun, in mining, a passage or support that carries one airway over another.^[2]
• 1900 – in geology, to tilt a fold into a more horizontal position.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of the sky or weather, covered with cloud: an overcast morning.^[10][6][2]
2. (meteorology) Of the sky, more than 95 per cent covered with cloud.^[10]
3. Gloomy or sad.^[10][6]
4. Sewn by overcasting; of a stitch, used for that purpose.^[10][2][4]
5. (geology) Of a fold, overturned.^[6]

Verb

1. To cover with cloud; to darken or make gloomy, or to become so.^[10][6][2]
2. To sew a raw edge with long slanting stitches, to stop it fraying.^[10][4]
3. (bookbinding) To sew the leaves or sections of a book together in this way.^[6][4]
4. (archaic) To throw down or overthrow.^[6][2][4]

Noun

1. A covering, especially a layer of cloud over the whole sky.^[10][6][2]
2. (mining) A crossing where one passage or airway runs over another.^[10][6][2]
3. Stitching made by overcasting.^[6][2][4]

Word family

• overcaster
• overcasting
• overcastness

Related words

• cast
• outcast
• forecast
• downcast

References

1. ^ 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 w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ 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. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)