Link Centre Dictionary

caste

UK/kɑːst/ US/kast/ fairly common

noun

1.

social status or position conferred by a system based on class

  • “lose caste by doing work beneath one”
2.
3.

a social class separated from others by distinctions of hereditary rank or profession or wealth

Origin

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-.

Phrases

  • caste mark
  • caste system
  • lose caste

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.