Offcast

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An entity or item that has been left behind or not accepted by others in a social or communal context
2. A being or object that has been excluded or dismissed from a group or collection
3. Something or someone pushed aside as unwanted or forsaken by others

Etymology: "Offcast" is built from "off" and "cast," a combination that goes back to Middle English "ofcasten," meaning to throw off or shed. The verb carried the sense of casting something away, as a snake sheds its skin or a plant drops its leaves, and the Scandinavian languages preserve close relatives of it: Danish "afkaste" means to shed, and Swedish "avkasta" can mean to crop, throw off, or yield. The noun may have grown out of an older Middle English word, "ofcast," which referred to the refuse of plants, the cast-off parts left behind after harvest. That physical sense of leftover waste sits comfortably beneath the modern meaning. A person or thing that is offcast is treated like that refuse: something discarded from a group or collection because it no longer fits or is no longer wanted.

Synonyms: discard, castoff, reject