Etymograph

English

caste

Caste comes from Spanish casta ‘lineage, breed, race’, from Portuguese casto ‘chaste’, and ultimately from Proto-Italic *kastos.

  1. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*kastosreconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcastus‘chaste"’
  3. Old Galician-Portuguesec. 1100–1500casto
  4. Portuguesec. 1500–presentsame form‘chaste’
  5. Spanishc. 1500–presentcasta‘lineage, breed, race’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1889caste

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*kastosreconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcastus‘chaste"’
  3. Old Galician-Portuguesec. 1100–1500casto
  4. Portuguesec. 1500–presentsame form‘chaste’
  5. Spanishc. 1500–presentcasta‘lineage, breed, race’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1889caste

Earliest quotation: 1889, Rudyard Kipling, The Hill of Illusion: “Ah! Can you give me all I've asked for…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *ḱes- ‘to cut’

castle, château, caries, cassation, cashel, castrate, 22 more

through Proto-Italic *kastos

chastisement, 3 more

through Latin castus ‘chaste"’

chastity, chastise, chaste, 4 more

Today it means

noun Any of the hereditary social classes and subclasses of South Asian societies or similar found historically in other cultures.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Italic *kastos / caste

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