caste [M16th] The general sense in early use was ‘race, breed’. It is from Spanish and Portuguese casta ‘lineage, race, breed’, feminine of casto ‘pure, unmixed’, from Latin castus ‘chaste’, also the source of castigation [ME], and chasten [E16th] ‘make chaste’, and chaste [ME] itself. The common current use is to refer to the hereditary classes of Hindu society: Brahman (priest), Kshatriya (warrior), Vaisya (merchant or farmer), and Sudra (labourer).