The -caster town names (from "castrum") are prominent among the rare examples of Latin words that were brought over to England by the Roman invaders & survived in English. Another one is "street" (from "via strata", paved way -- "stratum" is a much later importation of the same word).

How the k sound of Latin c mutated to ch & then to s in various dialects, I don't know, but it has happened quite a lot, and in a lot of languages (look at Italian & French). In "church", from Greek "kyriakon", it has happened twice.

--- Joe Fineman    joe_f@verizon.net

||: I reckon there's more things told than are true, And more things true than are told. :||