ONlwSG

casadh m. [ˈkʰas̪əɣ], gen. casaidh [ˈkʰas̪i], in the sense ‘cast, throw; act of casting, throwing’ is derived by Mackay (1897, 91) from Ice. kasa ‘to heap earth or stones upon, to earth (commonly used of witches, miscreants, carcases of men or beasts)’ (Cleasby 1874). Mackay provides the Sutherland examples gasadh chlach [sic] ‘throwing stones’ and casadh smugaid ‘casting spittle’. The form gasadh seems likely to be in error for casadh – Mackay’s article contains several typesetting errors. However, on semantic grounds McDonald (2009, 370) considers the loan unlikely.

On the other hand, while suggesting that Sutherland casadh is ‘seemingly founded on Eng. cast’, MacBain (1911) compares the Irish expression casadh ar a chéile ‘meeting with or happening upon each other’ (cf. Ó Dónaill 1977, s.v. ²cas 8(a)), which goes back to EG casaḋ ‘the act of turning, twisting’. EG casaḋ also has the sense ‘whirling a javelin’, which may well have been extended to ‘casting, throwing’ in general.

For SG casadh, Dwelly (1911) gives the senses ‘grinning, gaping; gnashing; turning against, opposing; corrugation, wrinkle; brandishing; wreathing, twisting, curling; climbing; approaching’, all of which can be traced back to EG casaḋ, itself from EG cas ‘curly, twisted; steep’ (SG cas).