means To send something through the air by a quick motion of the arm, or more broadly to fling, cast, or hurl in any direction.

from From Old English 'thrawan,' which meant to twist, turn, or curl — think of the spinning motion of a potter's wheel or a wrung cloth, not a baseball. It's related to Old High German 'drahsil' (a turner) and likely a cousin of Latin 'torquere,' to twist (the root behind 'torque' and 'torture'). The 'twist' sense lingered for centuries — you could once 'throw' silk by twisting threads together — and the modern meaning of casting an object came later, born from the wind-up rotation of the arm before the release.