caste
pronunciation
How to pronounce caste in British English:
UK [kɑːst]
How to pronounce caste in American English:
US [kæst]
-
- Noun:
- social status or position conferred by a system based on class
- (Hinduism) a hereditary social class among Hindus; stratified according to ritual purity
- a social class separated from others by distinctions of hereditary rank or profession or wealth
Word Origin
- caste
- caste: [16] Caste has no etymological connection with cast. It is borrowed from Spanish and Portuguese casta ‘race, breed’, a nominal use of the adjective casta ‘pure’, from Latin castus (source of English chaste). The notion underlying the word thus appears to be ‘racial purity’. Use of casta by the Portuguese in India with reference to the Hindu social groupings led to its being adopted in this sense by English in the 17th century.=> chaste, incest
- caste (n.)
- 1550s, "a race of men," from Latin castus "chaste," from castus "cut off, separated; pure" (via notion of "cut off" from faults), past participle of carere "to be cut off from" (and related to castration), from PIE *kas-to-, from root *kes- "to cut" (cognates: Latin cassus "empty, void"). Originally spelled cast in English and later often merged with cast (n.) in its secondary sense "sort, kind, style." Application to Hindu social groups was picked up by English in India 1610s from Portuguese casta "breed, race, caste," earlier casta raça, "unmixed race," from the same Latin word. The current spelling of of the English word is from this reborrowing. Caste system is first recorded 1840.
Example
- 1. It has therefore started asking job-seekersto register their caste .
- 2. But poverty , illiteracy , sexism and caste still dominate .
- 3. It is widely believed that this reflects a choice of competence over caste and secularism over sect .
- 4. Stopping to chat , he said : " all the village is with me , caste is unimportant ! "
- 5. Their appeal is to caste , regional or linguistic loyalty .