throw, verb transitive
- Origin:
- EnglishShow more Special uses of general English.
1. [Calqued on Afrikaans gooi (iemand) met (iets), literally ‘throw (someone) with (something)’, resulting in the replacement of the standard English ‘throw + object (thing thrown) + at + person or thing hit’ with the construction ‘throw + object (person or thing hit) + with + thing thrown’.] In the phrase to throw (someone) with (something), to throw (something) at (someone); occasionally to throw (someone), see quotation 1908.
- Note:
- Less common among first-language speakers of English than among those who speak English as a second language.
[1851 T. Shone Diary. 24 JuneThis evening..the young lads and lasses were playing about Henry’s Hut throwing at one or the other with sods or anything else they could lay hold of.]
1990 Sunday Times 11 Feb. 12The Naboomspruit Recorder’s headline of the incident..read: ‘Mike Gatting — Demos throw him with a stone’.
2. In the phrase to throw bones, to throw the bones (or occasionally to throw dolosse), to cast a collection of divining bones and other objects down, and, from their pattern and positions, to foretell the future or divine the cause of a difficulty or an illness; bula. See also bone sense 2, dolos sense 1, witchdoctor.
a1878 J. Montgomery Reminisc. (1981) 103Others threw their bones and augured that there was nothing to fear.
1990 G. Coetzee in S. Afr. Panorama Jan.–Feb. 14They (sc. hawkers) peddle fruit, vegetables and flowers, shine shoes,..wash motor cars,..throw the bones and provide herbs and remedies.
In the phrase to throw (someone) with (something),to throw (something) at (someone); occasionally to throw (someone), see quotation 1908.
In the phrase to throw bones, to throw the bones (or occasionally to throw dolosse),to cast a collection of divining bones and other objects down, and, from their pattern and positions, to foretell the future or divine the cause of a difficulty or an illness; bula.
Visualise Quotations
Quotation summarySenses
Copyright © 2023 Dictionary Unit for South African English.