Throwe

Part of speech: verb, noun

Definitions

1. An obsolete past tense of the verb throw, found in older English writing ; a sudden sharp pang or spasm of pain, an archaic usage
2. A dated form of the past tense of throw as used in earlier English ; an old word for a sudden stabbing pain or convulsion of the body
3. Former past tense of the verb to throw seen in older texts ; an archaic term for a violent spasm or sharp twinge of agony

Etymology: "Throwe" is an obsolete spelling of "throw," and the verb's oldest sense was almost the reverse of hurling. Its Old English ancestor, "þrāwan," meant "to turn" or "to twist," and it is related to modern German "drehen" and Dutch "draaien," both still meaning "to turn." The idea of hurling came later, which is why the word once had a rival: "warp" was the common term for flinging something, until "warp" took over the sense of twisting and "throw" took over the flinging. The modern computing sense grows from that physical picture. In programming, an error is "thrown" when normal processing stops and the error object travels up the chain of called functions until some piece of code "catches" it. The image of an object flying through the air until it is caught fits the older meaning of hurling perfectly.