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caste

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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English

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Etymology

Borrowed from Portuguese or Spanish casta (“lineage, breed, race”), which the OED derives from Portuguese casto (“chaste”), from Latin castus (“chaste"; "chastity”), Coromines (1987) argues instead for a hypothetical Gothic form *𐌺𐌰𐍃𐍄𐍃 (*kasts, “group, collection of animals”), cognate with English cast, from Proto-Germanic *kastuz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ǵ-es-.

Pronunciation

Noun

caste (plural castes)

  1. Any of the hereditary social classes and subclasses of South Asian societies or similar found historically in other cultures.
    Hyponyms: Brahmin, Kshatriya, Shudra, Vaishya, varna
    • 2017 April 6, Samira Shackle, “On the frontline with Karachi’s ambulance drivers”, in the Guardian‎:
      Pakistan is a conservative, religious state. The Edhi Foundation is unusual in its ignoring of caste, creed, religion and sect. This strict stance has led to some criticism from religious groups.
  2. A separate and fixed order or class of persons in society who chiefly associate with each other.
    • 1889, Rudyard Kipling, “The Hill of Illusion”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 86:
      Ah! Can you give me all I've asked for — not now, nor a few months later, but when you begin to think of what you might have done if you had kept your own appointment and your caste here — when you begin to look upon me as a drag and a burden?
    • 1934, Agatha Christie, chapter 5, in Murder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published 2017, page 236:
      'I believe, Messieurs, in loyalty - to one's friends and one's family and one's caste.'
    • 1911, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “Bunyan, John”, in 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica‎:
      The tinkers then formed a hereditary caste.
  3. (uncountable) The division of society into castes; the caste system.
  4. (zoology) A class of polymorphous eusocial insects of a particular size and function within a colony.
    In beehives, most bees belong to the worker caste.

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

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Dutch

Verb

caste

  1. (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive of casten

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Portuguese casta, if of Germanic origin, possibly from Gothic *𐌺𐌰𐍃𐍄𐍃 (*kasts), from Proto-Germanic *kastuz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ǵ-es- (“to throw”), similar to English cast. Or, alternatively from a derivative of Latin castus.

Noun

caste f (plural castes)

  1. caste (hereditary class)
  2. class (social position)

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Latin

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