caste

English

/kɑːst/, /kæst/

noun
Definitions
  • Any of the hereditary social classes and subclasses of South Asian societies.
  • A separate and fixed order or class of persons in society who chiefly associate with each other.
  • (zoology) A class of polymorphous eusocial insects of a particular size and function within a colony.

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish, Castilian casta (lineage, breed, race) derived from Latin castus (pure, pious, clean, virtuous, unpolluted, chaste).

Origin

Latin

castus

Gloss

pure, pious, clean, virtuous, unpolluted, chaste

Concept
Semantic Field

The physical world

Ontological Category

Property

Kanji

浄

Emoji

Timeline

Distribution of cognates by language

Geogrpahic distribution of cognates

Cognates and derived terms