Etymology

toss

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Today it means: A throw, a lob, of a ball etc., with an initial upward direction, particularly with a lack of care. Full definition →

Middle English tossen
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The story

  1. Middle English · inherited fromtosen“to tease, pull apart, shred; to wound, injure”
  2. Middle English · inherited fromtossen“to buffet about, agitate, toss; to sift or winnow”
  3. English todaytoss

From Middle English tossen (“to buffet about, agitate, toss; to sift or winnow”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Old Norse (compare dialectal Norwegian tossa, dialectal Swedish tossa (“to strew, spread”)), or perhaps from an alteration of Middle English tosen (“to tease, pull apart, shred; to wound, injure”). Compare also Dutch tassen (“to pile or heap up, stack”). The Welsh tos (“a quick jerk”) and tosio (“to jerk, toss”) are probably borrowed from the English.

Words from the same roots

Middle Englishtosen all →

tose

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.