SPLASH or SLASH? [brass tacks]

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>>>Nothing that early has been found in the UK, which casts the
>>>rhyming-slang origin in serious doubt.
>>
>>Hmm, some sort of idiom blend?
>>
>>"cast doubt on X" + "put/place X in doubt" -> "cast X in doubt"
>
>it sounded perfectly ordinary to me, but then i googled, and {"cast *
>in doubt"} is *tiny* vs. {"put * in doubt"} and {"place * in doubt"}.

Seemed OK to me; still does, I guess.

Try <<cast in doubt>> at Google Books: hundreds of instances, most of
them pertinent at a glance, dating back to 1822 although maybe with
some concentration recently.

It seems that maybe it's rather frequently passive: "X is cast in
doubt" etc. Plenty of active uses too though.

-- Doug Wilson


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