On Oct 31, 10:11 am, Kate Brown wrote:
In article , dated Wed, 31 Oct 2007,
Darren Prescott wrote



"Tudor Hughes" wrote in message
Someone tell him that the past tense of "forecast" is
"forecast", not "forecasted", which is a bit like saying "drived" or
"drawed".
"Forecasted" is one of those words that's very popular in the States.
It always makes me grit my teeth when I read a piece with the word in,
though, as it just sounds wrong!

Mind you, perhaps Piers is just stuck in the 19th century. If you look
up "forecasted" in the OED, you'll find:

forecast, v.

3. (? from the n.) To take a forecast of (the sky, weather); to exhibit
a forecast of; to foreshadow.

1883 E. C. ROLLINS New Eng. Bygones 94 They forecasted the sky, and
planned the toils of the morrow.

Hence forecasted ppl. a.
1882 Nature XXVI. 552 A single communication of forecasted weather.

And possibly is lifting the whole idea from Pliny:

Prid Kal Nov C: "If, when a west wind prevails, the Moon does not make
Her reappearance before Her fourth day there will be a prevalence of
stormy weather throughout the month (of November)" (Pliny 18.79).

Had he been writing for Britannia instead of Roma he might have
written: Should the beginning of November have Atlantic storms when
the moon reappears in the 4th hour... etc etc..

Obviously Northern Mediterranean places had longer spells than us in
those days?