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. Coromines (1987) argues instead for a hypothetical Gothic form *𐌺𐌰𐍃𐍄𐍃 (*kasts), cognate with English cast, from Proto-Germanic *kastuz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ǵ-es-.

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophones: cast, karst (in some non-rhotic accents)
• Rhymes: -ɑːst

Noun

caste (plural castes)

1. Any of the hereditary social classes and subclasses of South Asian societies.

   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

• casteless
• casteism
• caste-ridden
• half-caste
• lose caste
• quarter-caste

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 (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 (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) (jati)
• 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 (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): /ˈkaste̝/

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

• “caste” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006–2013.
• “caste” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.
• “caste” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.

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) 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) 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.