/kɑːst/, /kast/, /kæst/
OriginBorrowed 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-.
- Any of the hereditary social classes and subclasses of South Asian societies or similar found historically in other cultures.
“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.”
- A separate and fixed order or class of persons in society who chiefly associate with each other.
“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 be”
“'I believe, Messieurs, in loyalty - to one's friends and one's family and one's caste.'”
“The tinkers then formed a hereditary caste.”
- uncountableThe division of society into castes; the caste system.
“It was an evidence of the peculiar nature of caste in country towns[.]”
- A class of polymorphous eusocial insects of a particular size and function within a colony.
“In beehives, most bees belong to the worker caste.”
Formscastes(plural)