cast [kast, kahst] Show IPA
verb (used with object), cast, cast·ing.
to throw or hurl; fling: The gambler cast the dice.
to throw off or away: He cast the advertisement in the wastebasket.
to direct (the eye, a glance, etc.), especially in a cursory manner: She cast her eyes down the page.
to cause to fall upon something or in a certain direction; send forth: to cast a soft light; to cast a spell; to cast doubts.
to draw (lots), as in telling fortunes.
There are 5 examples and most are in the past tense. The last two don’t seem to be given any tense.
Lately, every time I’ve seen this word used in the past tense, it’s been “casted”. I asked some people and most of them said “casted” was correct. What do you think? Is the past tense of “cast” really “casted”. I don’t know what to think.
Might there be a difference between its usage as “to throw” versus its usage in the theatre or movies?
The OED says “casted” was used up until the 16th century, but cast is now recognized as the usual past tense. I’ve seen “casted” used as the past tense only of the verb usage meaning to put people in roles for a play. Even that sounds off to me.
OED generally refers to the Oxford English Dictionary, which offers several examples using “casted” as the past tense from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. But it has no examples from later than that, and says that the only current past tense and past participle is “cast”. It also says that “casten” was an alternative past participle which was found up to the seventeenth century.
I’ve had disagreements with people regarding forecast / forecasted. If I explain that we are running low on parts, because we have customer orders for 12,000 units, but we were forecast to sell only 8,000, everyone I work with seems to think I should say, “we were forecasted . . .”