caste

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-.

• (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

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.
   • 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^[2]:

     The tinkers then formed a hereditary caste.

3. (uncountable) The division of society into castes; the caste system.
   • 1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, →OCLC, page 89:

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

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.

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

caste

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

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.

caste f (plural castes)

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

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

• casta

Probably from Gothic *𐌺𐌰𐍃𐍄𐍃 (*kasts), from Proto-Germanic *kastuz, *kastōną (“to throw, cast”), compare English cast.^[1]

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

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.

• 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

• IPA^(key): /ˈkas.te/
• Rhymes: -aste
• Hyphenation: cà‧ste

caste

1. feminine plural of casto

caste f

1. plural of casta

• cesta, steca

From castus +‎ -ē.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkas.teː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkas.t̪e]

castē (comparative castius, superlative castissimē)

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

Inflected form of castus.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkas.tɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkas.t̪e]

caste

1. vocative masculine singular of castus

• “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.