Etymology
1. "to brown with heat," 1398, from O.Fr.
toster "to toast or grill" (12c.), from V.L.
*tostare (cf. It.
tostare, Sp.
tostar), frequentative of L.
torrere (pp.
tostus) "to parch" (see terrain). The noun meaning "a toasted piece of bread" is attested from c.1430; slang meaning "a goner, person or thing already doomed or destroyed" is recorded by 1987, perhaps from notion of computer circuits being "fried," and with unconscious echoes of earlier fig. phrase
to be had on toast (1886) "to be served up for eating."
Toaster in the electrical appliance sense first recorded 1913.
Toasty "warm and comfortable" is recorded from 1890.
2. Etymology tree
3. Proto-Indo-European *ters-
4. Proto-Indo-European *-tós
5. Proto-Indo-European *tr̥stós
6. Proto-Italic *torstos
7. Latin tostus
8. Proto-Indo-European *-h₂
9. Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂
10. Proto-Indo-European *-yéti
11. Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti
12. Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu.
13. Proto-Italic *-ājō
14. Proto-Italic *-āō
15. Latin -ō
16. Late Latin tostō
17. Old French tosterbor.
18. Middle English tosten
19. English toast
20. From Middle English tosten, from Old French toster (“to roast, grill”), from Late Latin tostō, -āre, frequentative of torreō (“to burn, grill”) from its perfect passive participle tostus (“grilled, burnt”). See: Middle English '
tosten'.
Verbs referencing "toast"
Spanish
torrar, Maori tōhi, Zulu
thosa.