"The die were cast."

Question

The idiom "the die is cast" is well known. The simple past tense version of this in the indicative mood should be, "the die was cast." In the novel, The Godless, by Ben Peek, I came across the sentence, "He knew there was something wrong with this, a gut-level reaction, but he knew that the die were cast now." Unless I am missing something, this sentence is in the indicative mood.

I then did an online search and found several books that used "the die were cast" in the indicative mood, so this doesn't appear to be a typo. Examples included Colombia and the United States: Hegemony and Interdependence, by Stephen J. Randall; Perspectives on the Nuremberg Trial by Guénaël Mettraux; A Stubble-Jumper in Striped Pants: Memoirs of a Prairie Diplomat, by Earl G. Drake; Writing History in Renaissance Italy, by Gary Ianziti; etc. I understand "the die were cast" is correct if it’s being used in the subjunctive mood in a clause like, "if the die were cast," or, “as though the die were cast,” but that is not the case in any of the cited examples.

My question: Is the use of "the die were cast" in the indicative mood an idiom, or a regionalism? If it is, does anyone know its etymology in the specific form of "the die were cast" when being used in the indicative mood (I am interested in knowing how a singular noun came to be the subject of a plural verb)?

Answer 1

Die is often, in my experience, assumed to be the plural form of dice (e.g. the OP example, the die were cast. Presumably this usage occurs by association with other anglicised latin-root words (octopus/octopi, alumnus/alumni ...)

In fact, die is the singular form of dice although (confusingly) the form dice (used as both pl. and sing.) is of much more frequent occurrence in gaming and related senses than the singular die. ^{OED link, paywalled}

Answer 2

• The form “the die is cast” is from the Latin iacta alea est, a grammatically incorrect translation by Suetonius, 121 CE, of the Ancient Greek phrase of Menander "Ἀνερρίφθω κύβος ‎(Anerrhíphthō kúbos)", which Caesar quoted in Greek (not Latin). The Greek translates rather as “let the die be cast!”, or “Let the game be ventured!” (Wiktionary)

• It would appear as though the Die referred to, was the singular form of a pair of Dice. In other words one the die had been thrown (cast), the result could not be changed, as in a gamble.

The first usage instance of this saying in English dates back to 1634:

The die has been cast:

An irrevocable choice has been made.

Origin:

• This expression has nothing to do with the modern-day process of die-casting of metal - the die here is the singular of dice. Julius Caesar is supposed to have spoken this phrase when crossing the Rubicon. Such stories are difficult to verify at this long remove and, of course, Caesar wouldn't have uttered the expression in English.

• The earliest English version of the phrase doesn't refer back to Roman history, so we have to take the above story with a pinch of salt.

• The earliest citation of the phrase that I can find is in Sir Thomas Herbert, A relation of some yeares travaile begunne anno 1626, into Afrique and the greater Asia, 1634:

  • "Aiijb, Is the die cast, must At this one throw all thou hast gaind be lost?"

(The Phrase Finder)

Answer 3

Assuming the grammar is correct in the phrase "the die were cast," then the issue is not with the origin of the idiom in Greek, Latin or English, nor with the pluralism of the singular die, nor with the singularism of the plural dice, but rather instead rests with understanding the unfamiliar feeling of the tense placement of the word were in the idiom.

Past Subjuntive

Were is correctly used not only as the plural past ("they were") and second person singular past ("you were"), of BE, but in the case of the idiom in question (and though highlighted and discarded by OP for some cases, it must be so if correct) it is also used for the subjunctive past. If the grammar is correct, then the only option is that the idiom "the die were cast" is using were as subjunctive past.

The past subjunctive has the same form as the past simple tense except in the case of the verb BE. Though traditionally, the past subjunctive form of BE is were for all persons, including the first person singular and third person singular, the English subjunctive is used to form sentences that do not describe known objective facts.

The tense that is thus indicative is that even though "the die is cast," if unaware of the result of a cast die, the utilization of the subjunctive past of BE conjugates as "the die were cast." Simply, were is used to denote subjunctive past mood rather than read incorrectly as a pluralizing of "die."

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_subjunctive

Answer 4

The noun dice (plural) has become difficult. I checked some dictionaries, Oald, Collins, Macmillan, and you get different answers as to singular and plural and American usage.

No wonder that various authors handle dice differently. I remember having read in an older Oald that dice (plural) has no singular and that one has to say "one of the dice" as singular form.

That is unpractical and one may assume that speakers tend to change the system.

Added: I think Wikipedia is the only one that gives clear information as to the various forms. Singular: die or dice, plural: dice, occasionally dices.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dice

Answer 5

It would seem right to say "The die is cast" or the "The dies are/were cast" but it's also possible to use "die" in the same way as "sheep" so your quote may be proper use (but old?), maybe an Australian thing, or a typo.

It's quite possible to imaging metalworkers getting bored and using their tools for games, with cubes winning out due to ease of use and outcome variability ( vs other methods). With "dice" coming from a slang use of "dies" being integrated into another language, probably post conquest given the recorded history of the word, so I tend to think the modern use of "dice" has become standalone and acceptable, with there being no singular because the people who adopted the "dice" word from seeing chance games involving multiple "dies".

so it's both?