caste

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Portuguese or Spanish casta (“lineage, breed, race”), of uncertain origin.

• The OED derives it 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

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: käst, IPA^(key): /kɑːst/
• (Northern England, Scotland) IPA^(key): /kast/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /kæst/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Homophones: cast; karst (non-rhotic, trap–bath split)
• Rhymes: -ɑːst

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^[1]:

     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.
   • 1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1965, →OCLC, page 89:

     It was an evidence of the peculiar nature of caste in country towns[.]

   • 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^[2]:

     The tinkers then formed a hereditary caste.

3. (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

• anticaste
• casted
• casteism
• casteist
• casteist
• casteless
• castelike
• castelike
• caste mark
• castemate
• castemate
• caste-ridden
• castewise
• castewise
• half-caste
• intercaste
• intracaste
• lose caste
• noncaste
• outcaste
• quarter-caste
• subcaste
• supercaste

 

Translations

hereditary social class

• Arabic: طَبَقَة f (ṭabaqa), طَبَقِيَّة f (ṭabaqiyya) (system)
• Armenian: կաստա (hy) (kasta)
• Assamese: বৰ্ণ (borno)
• Azerbaijani: kasta
• Balinese: kasta, linggih
• Belarusian: ка́ста f (kásta)
• Bengali: জাত (bn) (jat), জাতি (bn) (jati), বর্ণ (bn) (borno)
• Bulgarian: каста (bg) f (kasta)
• Burmese: ဇာတ် (my) (jat)
• Catalan: casta (ca) f, nissaga (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 種姓／种姓 (zh) (zhǒngxìng); 種姓制度／种姓制度 (zh) (zhǒngxìng zhìdù) (system)

• Czech: kasta (cs) f
• Danish: kaste (da) c
• Dutch: kaste (nl) m or f
• Esperanto: kasto
• Estonian: kast
• Faroese: kasta (fo) f
• Finnish: kasti (fi)
• French: caste (fr) f
• Galician: casta f
• Georgian: კასტა (ḳasṭa)
• German: Kaste (de) f
• Greek: κάστα (el) f (kásta)
• Gujarati: જાત f (jāt), જાતિ f (jāti), નાત f (nāt), ન્યાત f (nyāt), વર્ણ f (varṇ), જ્ઞાતિ (gu) f (jñāti), કોળી f (koḷī)
• Hebrew: קאסטה f (kasta)
• Hindi: वर्ण (hi) m (varṇ), जाति (hi) f (jāti), जात (hi) f (jāt), वर्णाश्रम (hi) m (varṇāśram), खेत (hi) m (khet), कुल (hi) m (kul), न्याति (hi) f (nyāti), ज़ात (hi) f (zāt), नात (hi) m (nāt), ज्ञाति (hi) m (jñāti), गोत्र (hi) m (gotra), बिरादरी (hi) f (birādrī), जिनस (hi) f (jinas), जिंस (hi) f (jins), वंश (hi) m (vañś), बंस (hi) m (bans), नस्ल f (nasla), नसल (hi) f (nasal)
• Hungarian: kaszt (hu)
• Icelandic: erfðastétt f
• Indonesian: kasta (id)
• Italian: casta (it) f
• Japanese: カースト (ja) (kāsuto), ジャーティ (jāti)
• Kannada: ಜಾತಿ (kn) (jāti), ವರ್ಣ (kn) (varṇa)
• Kashmiri: please add this translation if you can
• Kazakh: каста (kasta)
• Khmer: វណ្ណ (km) (vannaʼ)
• Korean: 카스트 (ko) (kaseuteu), 카스트제도 (kaseuteujedo)
• Lao: ວັນນະ (wan na)
• Latvian: kasta f
• Lithuanian: kasta f
• Macedonian: каста f (kasta)
• Malay: kasta (ms), warna (ms)
• Malayalam: ജാതി (ml) (jāti), വർണ്ണം (vaṟṇṇaṁ), കുലം (ml) (kulaṁ), കൂട്ടം (ml) (kūṭṭaṁ), ഗോത്രം (ml) (gōtraṁ)
• Maori: tātai
• Marathi: जात-जमात ? (jāt-jamāt)
• Mongolian: каст (kast)
• Nepali: काय (ne) (kāya)
• Norwegian: kaste (no) m
• Odia: ଜାତି (or) (jāti)
• Pali: vaṇṇa m, jāti f
• Persian: کاست (fa) (kâst), طبقه (fa) (tabaqe), ذات (fa) (zât), نسل (fa) (nasl)
• Polish: kasta (pl) f
• Portuguese: casta (pt) f
• Punjabi: ਜਾਤਿ ? (jāti)
• Russian: ка́ста (ru) f (kásta), ва́рна (ru) f (várna)
• Sanskrit: वर्ण (sa) m (várṇa), जाति (sa) f (jāti)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ка̏ста f

  Roman: kȁsta (sh) f

• Sindhi: please add this translation if you can
• Sinhalese: කුල (si) (kula)
• Slovak: kasta f
• Slovene: kasta (sl) f
• Spanish: casta (es) f
• Swedish: kast (sv) n
• Tajik: каста (kasta)
• Tamil: சாதி (ta) (cāti)
• Telugu: కులము (te) (kulamu) వర్ణము (te) (varṇamu)
• Thai: วรรณะ (th) (wan-ná), วรรณ (th) (wan)
• Turkish: kast (tr)
• Ukrainian: ка́ста (uk) f (kásta)
• Urdu: جات f (jāt), ذات (ur) f (zāt), ورناشرم m (varṇāśram), کھیت m (khet), کل m (kul), نیات f (nyāti)
• Uzbek: kasta (uz)
• Vietnamese: đẳng cấp (vi)
• Yiddish: קאַסטע f (kaste)

Anagrams

• Cates, Stace, cates, scate, sceat, taces

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)

Further reading

• “caste”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Galician

Alternative forms

• casta

Etymology

Probably from Gothic *𐌺𐌰𐍃𐍄𐍃 (*kasts), from Proto-Germanic *kastuz, *kastōną (“to throw, cast”), compare English cast.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkaste/ [ˈkɑs̺.t̪ɪ]
• Rhymes: -aste
• Hyphenation: cas‧te

Noun

caste f (plural castes)

1. species, race or kind
   • 1853, Juan Manuel Pintos, A Gaita Gallega, Pontevedra: Impr. de D. José e D. Primitivo Vilas, page 29:

     Por aquí nacen os ricos polo outro probes labregos. Estas son as dúas castes que hai en todo o mundo inteiro.

     Here the rich people are born, there the poor peasants; these are the two races that there are in the whole world

2. quality
   • 1859, Ramón Barros Silvelo, Un dia de desfertuna, page 3:

     Dime logo que o probe do animal ou é de mala caste, ou ben non come

     He readily told me that the animal [that I was selling] either was of bad quality, or either it didn't eat

3. progeny; group of people that share a common ancestor

   Synonyms: estirpe, fruxe, liñaxe

   • 1853, Juan Manuel Pintos, A Gaita Gallega, Pontevedra: Impr. de D. José e D. Primitivo Vilas, page 8:

     { soy llamado Pedro Luces ... } - To to to, vamos con tento que un home con ese nome pode ser caste do demo.

     {I am called Peter Lights...} —Wo wo wo! Let us be careful: a man with that name could de a Devil's child.

Derived terms

• castizar (“to mate”)
• castizo (“stud pig”)
• de caste (“selected”)

 

References

• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “caste”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “caste”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “caste”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

Italian

Adjective

caste

1. feminine plural of casto

Noun

caste f

1. plural of casta

Anagrams

• cesta, steca

Latin

Etymology 1

From castus +‎ -ē.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈkas.teː/, [ˈkäs̠t̪eː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈkas.te/, [ˈkäst̪e]

Adverb

castē (comparative castius, superlative castissimē)

1. purely, spotlessly, virtuously
2. piously, religiously

Etymology 2

Inflected form of castus.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈkas.te/, [ˈkäs̠t̪ɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈkas.te/, [ˈkäst̪e]

Adjective

caste

1. vocative masculine singular of castus

References

• “caste”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “caste”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• caste in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.