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▪ I. castor1|ˈkɑːstə(r), -æ-|
Also 6 castour, 7 -er.
[a. F. castor (16th c.) and L. castor, a. Gr. κάστωρ beaver, prob. a foreign word. Cf. Skr. kastūrī musk.]
1. The beaver. (Now rarely used).
[1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. xxix. (1495) 789 The Castor hyght Fyber also.] 1547Boorde Introd. Knowl. vi. 141 Ther [in Norway] be many castours and whyte beares. 1612Drayton Poly-olb. vi. 87 Cleere Tivy..Which of thy Castors once, but now canst onlie boast The Salmons. 1666Dryden Ann. Mirab. xxv, Like hunted castors conscious of their store. 1750Beawes Lex Mercat. (1752) 822 Skins, especially Castor. 1875Ure Dict. Arts s.v., The sacs are cut off from the castors when they are killed.
2. A reddish-brown unctuous substance, having a strong smell and nauseous bitter taste, obtained from two sacs in the inguinal region of the beaver; used in medicine and in perfumery; castoreum.
1601Holland Pliny II. 430 Two drams..is thought to be a sufficient dose of Castor. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 150. 1693 Phil. Trans. XVII. 935 Castor he proves to be the Scent-bags adjoyning to the Intestinum Rectum, and not the Testicles of the Beaver, as some assert. 1750Mrs. Delany Autobiog. & Corr. (1861) II. 550 Your letters..have been my castor, pearl cordial, and sal volatile. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) II. 91 Bezoar, civet, and castor, are the diseases of animals. 1834J. Forbes Laennec's Dis. Chest 385 Musk and castor..give more speedy relief. 1875Ure Dict. Arts s.v., Chemists..have examined castor, and found it to be composed of a resin, a fatty substance, a volatile oil, an extractive matter, benzoic acid, and some salts.
3. A hat, orig. either of beaver's fur, or intended to be taken as such; in the end of the 17th and beginning of 18th c. distinguished from ‘beaver’, and said to be of rabbit's fur; at that time also usually spelt caster. Now mostly colloq. or slang. Cf. beaver 3. (So in Fr.)
1640in Entick London II. 175 Bever hats, Demi-casters. 1656Blount Glossogr. To Rdr. A iij a, In London many of the Tradesmen have new Dialects..The Haberdasher is ready to furnish you with a Vigone, Codevec, or Castor. 1675Lond. Gaz. No. 1031/4 A parcel of Hats, being Mens, Womens, and Boyes, Castors. 1680Ibid. No. 1513/4 A thick short boy..with a..gray caster hat. 1688Ibid. No. 2363/4, 2 black Hats, one a Beaver, the other a new Caster. 1688R. Holme Armoury iii. 129/1 Of Hats..the Caster..is made of Coney Wooll mixt with Polony Wooll. 1709Steele Tatler No. 46 ⁋1 His Imperial Castor, which he always wears cock'd in Front. 1750Beawes Lex Mercat. (1752) 578 The Manufactures of this Shire [Derby] are..some Felt, Castor, and Beaver Hats. 1768Sterne Sent. Journ. (1774) I. 133. 1827 Scott Chron. Canongate Ser. 1. Introd. iii, A white castor on my head. 1838Dickens O. Twist xxv. 1849C. Brontë Shirley xiii. 193 His coat and castor having been detained at the public-house in pledge.
4. ‘A heavy quality of broadcloth used for overcoats’ (Webster).
5. oil of castor. (Littré has huile de castor in sense of castoreum from Paré c 1550.)
1727–51Chambers Cycl. s.v. Castoreum, They draw an oil from it called Oil of Castor.
6. Glove leather made from goat-skins; it is given a very soft finish of a grey colour.
1897C. T. Davis Manuf. Leather xxxviii. 519 When finished, [they] bear a close resemblance in texture and quality, to deer-skin or castor. 1910Flemming Tanning (ed. 2) 292 The tanner who wants to make mocha castor glove leather from kid and goat skins. 1923Daily Mail 14 Feb. 11 Ladies' good quality Washable Castor Gloves.
7. A light drab colour.
1904Daily Chron. 24 Oct. 8/4 Castor-coloured cloth (a soft beaver shade). 1923Daily Mail 5 June 1 Colours: Nude, Fawn,..Mouse, Castor, Dark Tan.
▪ II. castor2|ˈkɑːstə(r), -æ-|
Also caster.
[A variant of caster, f. cast v. (in sense 1 ‘to throw’, and 54 ‘to turn or veer’) + -er. The spelling in -or prob. arose primarily from confusion, and from missing the actual derivation; but it is now predominant, though one might write pepper-caster.]
1. A small vessel with a perforated top, from which to cast or sprinkle pepper, sugar, or the like, in the form of powder; extended to other vessels used to contain condiments at table, as in ‘a set of castors’, i.e. the castors and cruets usual in a cruet-stand.
1676Lond. Gaz. No. 1079/4 Stole..Six Salts. A Sugar Castar. A Pepper Caster. A Mustard Pot. 1681Ibid. No. 1591/4 One Sett of Casters. 1801Jekyll Tears of Cruets, The Sugar Castor Wilberforce supplied. 1809R. Langford Introd. Trade 84 A Silver Set of Castors. 1836Marryat Midsh. Easy ix, Put before our hero a tin bread-basket.. and the pepper-castor. 1861Dickens in All Y. Round IV. 461 The table-cloth and spoons and castors.
2. A small solid wheel and swivel attached to the foot of each leg of a piece of furniture, so that it may be turned in any direction without lifting.
1748Mrs. Montagu in Doran Lady of last Cent. (1873) Like a slate-bed running on castors. 1800Sir W. Herschel in Phil. Trans. XC. 491 An arrangement of twelve bricks, placed on a stand, with casters. 1833Brewster Nat. Magic xi. 269 The machine runs on casters. 1872Black Adv. Phaeton xxv. 345 You can't have castors on old oak chairs. 1873J. Richards Wood-working Factories 42 Trucks with casters.
3. attrib. and Comb., as castor-stand; castor action (see quot. 1940); castor angle, the angle at which the steering-head of the front wheels of a motor vehicle is set; castor-sugar, powdered sugar, so called from its suitability for use in a castor; castor-wheel, a small wheel which turns on its own and a vertical axis, used to support or steer an agricultural machine, or enable it to be turned short round.
1926Motor Man. (ed. 26) xix. 193 Caster action, an action tending to maintain the front wheels in the course they are following, obtained by tilting the steering pivots as viewed from the side. 1936Castor action [see camber n. 1 d]. 1940Chambers's Techn. Dict. 141/1 Caster action, the use of inclined king-pins by which the steerable front wheels of a motor vehicle are given fore-and-aft stability..on the principle of the domestic caster.
1936Castor angle [see camber n. 1 d]. 1959Motor 2 Sept. 92/1 Caster angle (the fore-and-aft inclination of the swivel axis). 1963Bird & Hutton-Stott Veteran Motor Car 151 There was no rake or castor-angle to the steering-heads.
1867F. S. Cozzens Sayings iii. 13 The reflected sunshine from those cut bottles in the castor-stand.
1855E. Acton Mod. Cookery xx. 405 Morella cherries..simmered..with three quarters of a pound of castor-sugar. 1894T. F. Garrett Encycl. Pract. Cookery II. 533/1 White [sugar]..being sometimes sold in the form of a powder as ‘caster Sugar’. 1901Daily Chron. 30 Nov. 8/4, 1½ oz. of castor sugar. 1951Mrs. Beeton Househ. Managem. xxxiv. 870 Sago snow..2 ozs. of sago, 2 pints of milk, 2 ozs. of castor sugar, 2 or 3 eggs, vanilla.
1805Dickson Pract. Agric. I. Plate ix. to face p. 40 The profile of a six-shared horse-hoe on the principle of the pentagraph, improved by Mr. Amos by the addition of two castor-wheels to regulate depth. a1877Knight Dict. Mech. s.v., The caster-wheel is used as a support to the front parts of machines, such as harvesters..and plowing machines, to enable them to be steered or to turn short around at the end of the row.
Hence ˈcastorless a., and comb. castor-maker, etc.
1690Lond. Gaz. No. 2539/4 Charles Mansell, a Caster-maker. 1883J. Payn Thicker than Water II. xx. 29 Chairs rickety and castorless.
▪ III. castor4|ˈkɑːstə(r), -æ-|
[perh. some corruption of castane, or L. castanea chestnut, in F. chataigne.]
(See quot. and cf. chestnut n.)
1888Brit. Med. Jrnl. 25 Feb., The singular patch of hard integument known as the castor on the inside of the foreleg of the horse. 1888Veterinarian May 304 Another organ in process of disappearance is that piece of horn inside the fore⁓arm, where it is termed the chestnut, and that inside the hock, where it is termed the castor; it corresponds to the finger-nail of the thumb of our hand, and of the foot of the five-toed ancestor of the horse.
▪ IV. castor5 Min.
See castorite. |