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Origin and history of caster

caster(n.1)

also sometimes castor, "person or thing that casts," late 14c., agent noun from cast (v.). The meaning "pepper shaker, small perforated container" is from 1670s, on the notion of something that "throws" the powder, liquid, etc., when needed.

caster(n.2)

"small wheel and swivel attached to the leg of a piece of furniture," 1748, agent noun from cast (v.) in the old sense of "turn." Also sometimes castor.

also from 1748

Entries linking to caster

cast(v.)

c. 1200, "throw, throw violently, fling, hurl," from a Scandinavian source akin to Old Norse kasta "to throw" (cognate with Swedish kasta, Danish kaste, North Frisian kastin), a word of uncertain origin.

The meaning "to form in a mold" is late 15c. In the sense of "to throw" it replaced Old English weorpan (see warp (v.)), and itself largely has been superseded by throw, though cast still is used of fishing lines (17c.) and glances (13c.).

From c. 1300 as "emit, give out;" also "throw to the ground;" also "shed or throw off;" also "calculate, find by reckoning; chart (a course)." From late 14c. as "to calculate astrologically." From late 15c. as "bring forth abortively or prematurely." From 1711 as "distribute the parts (of a play) among the actors." Of votes, from 1840, American English. To cast up is from 1530s as "compute, reckon" (accounts, etc.), late 15c. as "eject, vomit."

pepper-caster(n.)

"pepper-box," 1670s, from pepper (n.) + caster (n.1). As a colloquial term for an early and clumsy form of revolver with a long cylinder, by 1889.

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    castor
    late 14c., "a beaver," from Old French castor (13c.), from Latin castor "beaver," from Greek kastor "beaver," perhaps literally "he who excels," and thus identical with the name of one of the divine twins (with Pollux), worshipped by women in ancient Greece as a healer and preser
    castle
    plural castra was used for "military encampment, military post" and thus it came into Old English as ceaster and formed the -caster...
    roller
    late 13c., "thing that rolls, roller for moving heavy objects;" late 14c., "a rolling pin," agent noun from roll (v.). The sense of "heavy cylinder for smoothing the ground is from 1520s. Meaning "hair-curler" is attested from 1795; as a printer's tool, by 1790; as a device for a
    shaker
     c. 1400, "a sieve, a kitchen device;" by mid-15c. in the general sense of "one who or which shakes," agent noun from shake (v.). From 1640s it was applied (with capital initial) to Christian sects whose devotional exercises gave some participants enthusiastic convulsions (c
    overcome
    Old English ofercuman "to reach, overtake, move or pass over," also "to conquer, prevail over, defeat in combat" (the Devil, evil spirits, sin, temptation, etc.), from ofer (see over) + cuman "to come" (see come (v.)). A common Germanic compound (Middle Dutch overkomen, Old High
    tartar
    "bitartrate of potash, sediment of potassium tartarate" (a deposit left during fermentation), late 14c., from Old French tartre and directly from Medieval Latin tartarum, from late Greek tartaron "tartar encrusting the sides of wine casks," a word perhaps of Semitic origin, but i
    lede
    by 1965, alternative spelling of lead (n.2) in the newspaper journalism sense, to distinguish this specialized sense from other possible meanings of the written word, perhaps especially the molten lead (n.1) used in 20c. typesetting machines...."a people, nation, race; the subjec
    brute
    early 15c., "of or belonging to animals, non-human," from Old French brut "coarse, brutal, raw, crude," from Latin brutus "heavy, dull, stupid, insensible, unreasonable" (source also of Spanish and Italian bruto), said to be an Oscan word, from PIE *gwruto-, suffixed form of root
    clue
    "anything that guides or directs in an intricate case," 1590s, a special use of a revised spelling of clew "a ball of thread or yarn" (q.v.). The word, which is native Germanic, in Middle English was clewe, also cleue; some words borrowed from Old French in -ue, -eu also were spe

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