Caste definition

Caste





Home | Index


We love those sites:

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Caste \Caste\, n. [Pg. casta race, lineage, fr. L. castus pure,
     chaste: cf. F. caste, of same origin.]
     1. One of the hereditary classes into which the Hindu are
        divided according to the laws of Brahmanism.
        [1913 Webster]
  


     Note: The members of the same caste are theoretically of
           equal rank, and same profession or occupation, and may
           not eat or intermarry with those not of their own
           caste. The original are four, viz., the Brahmans, or
           sacerdotal order; the Kshatriyas, or soldiers and
           rulers; the Vaisyas, or husbandmen and merchants; and
           the Sudras, or laborers and mechanics. Men of no caste
           are Pariahs, outcasts. Numerous mixed classes, or
           castes, have sprung up in the progress of time.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     2. A separate and fixed order or class of persons in society
        who chiefly hold intercourse among themselves.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The tinkers then formed an hereditary caste.
                                                    --Macaulay.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     {To lose caste}, to be degraded from the caste to which one
        has belonged; to lose social position or consideration.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  caste
       n 1: social status or position conferred by a system based on
            class; "lose caste by doing work beneath one's station"
       2: (Hinduism) a hereditary social class among Hindus;
          stratified according to ritual purity
       3: a social class separated from others by distinctions of
          hereditary rank or profession or wealth

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  68 Moby Thesaurus words for "caste":
     ashram, blood, body, bracket, branch, category, clan, class,
     colony, commonwealth, commune, community, condition, division,
     echelon, economic class, endogamous group, estate, extended family,
     family, footing, gens, grade, group, grouping, head, heading,
     hierarchy, kin, kinship group, label, level, moiety,
     nuclear family, order, phratria, phratry, phyle, pigeonhole, place,
     position, power structure, precedence, predicament, race, rank,
     rate, rating, rubric, section, sept, set, settlement, social class,
     society, sphere, stage, standing, station, status, strain, stratum,
     subcaste, subdivision, subgroup, suborder, title, totem
  
  

















Powered by Blog Dictionary [BlogDict]
Kindly supported by Vaffle Invitation Code Get a Freelance Job - Outsource Your Projects | Threadless Coupon
All rights reserved. (2008-2024)