Caste

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /kɑːst/

Definitions

1. a system of rigid social stratification based on hereditary rank or birth that determines occupation, status, and social position within a community
2. a hierarchical social division in which individuals are assigned to distinct groups at birth that govern their role, privileges, and interactions in society
3. A social class assigned from birth that controls a person's social duties and privileges

Etymology: The English word "caste" arrived from Portuguese or Spanish "casta," meaning "lineage, breed, race." That Iberian word is where the trouble starts, because its ancestry is disputed. The Oxford English Dictionary links it to Portuguese "casto," meaning "chaste," which goes back to Latin "castus." On this reading, a caste was a line of pure, unmixed descent, kept free of outside blood. The Spanish scholar Joan Coromines, however, proposed a different source: a hypothetical Gothic form "kasts," meaning "group" or "collection of animals," which is related to English "cast" and ultimately to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning something like "to throw or gather." Both explanations share a core idea. Whichever origin is right, the word began as a term for a lineage or breed, a notion borrowed from the rearing of animals and families. Only later did it come to describe the hereditary ranks of human society, the sense it carries in English today.

Synonyms: class, social order, stratum, group, category

Antonyms: equality, sameness, uniformity, unification, integration