English
throw
Throw comes from Middle English throwen ‘to throw’, from Old English þrāwan ‘to turn, twist’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *terh₁-.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*terh₁-‘to rub’reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*þrēaną‘to twist’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*þrāan‘to twist’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150þrāwan‘to turn’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500throwen‘to throw’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1595–1596throw
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*terh₁-‘to rub’reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*þrēaną‘to twist’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*þrāan‘to twist’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150þrāwan‘to turn’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500throwen‘to throw’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1595–1596throw
Earliest quotation: c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame: “There the snake throws her enamelled skin.”
The story
The use in computing comes from the fact, that in programming languages a statement reporting an error interrupts normal processing and sends an error object up the function calling stack until a handling statement intercepts it. Thus an “object” is “thrown” and “flies” until it is “caught”.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- ‘to rub, rub by twisting, twist, turn’
turn, tournament, tragic, thread, threshold, detrimental, trout, detriment, detour, attrition, tourney, tyrone, triage, trite, termite, tribulation, detritus, thrash, tourniquet, truant, derma, tyro, thresher, thresh, 41 more
Today it means
verb To hurl; to release (an object) with some force from one’s hands, an apparatus, etc. so that it moves rapidly through the air.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- / throw