Caster


a person or thing that casts.
a small wheel on a swivel, set under a piece of furniture, a machine, etc., to facilitate moving it.
a bottle or cruet for holding a condiment.
a stand containing a set of such bottles.
a metal container for sugar, pepper, etc., having a perforated top to permit sprinkling; dredger; muffineer.
Automotive. the angle that the kingpin makes with the vertical. Automobiles are usually designed with the upper end of the kingpin inclined rearward (positive caster) for improved directional stability.
(of a wheel) to swivel freely in a horizontal plane.
Sociology.

an endogamous and hereditary social group limited to persons of the same rank, occupation, economic position, etc., and having mores distinguishing it from other such groups.
any rigid system of social distinctions.

Hinduism. any of the social divisions into which Hindu society is traditionally divided, each caste having its own privileges and limitations, transferred by inheritance from one generation to the next; jati.
Compare class (def 13).
any class or group of society sharing common cultural features:
low caste; high caste.
social position conferred upon one by a caste system:
to lose caste.
Entomology. one of the distinct forms among polymorphous social insects, performing a specialized function in the colony, as a queen, worker or soldier.
of, relating to, or characterized by caste:
a caste society; a caste system; a caste structure.
Contemporary Examples

However, she does not downplay the amount of dark clothes and black eyeliner that are characteristic of her caster ways.
‘Beautiful Creatures’: 14 Notable Differences From the Book to the Screen Jean Trinh February 14, 2013

Then that brought up the question of sentience: Is this Will caster?
How ‘Transcendence’ Director Wally Pfister Became Christopher Nolan’s Secret Weapon Andrew Romano April 16, 2014

Historical Examples

When a man is touched by the caster it must be played if possible; if impossible no penalty.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 1 Various

The chief Latin contributions are -Chester, -cester, -caster, Lat.
The Romance of Names Ernest Weekley

caster is a grandson of Governor Blacksnake, the famous chief of the Senecas, who died in 1859 at the age of 120 years.
Descriptive Catalogue of Photographs of North American Indians W. H. Jackson

In the middle were hooks in the trunk-beams for the caster and the lantern.
The Yacht Club Oliver Optic

The buck jumped up half asleep and roared out, ‘I’ll bet the caster 20 guineas!’
The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims Andrew Steinmetz

The caster removed it from the door, laid it on the counter, and named his price.
The Goose Man Jacob Wassermann

Among the artists of early times it is often difficult to distinguish between the carver of wood and the caster of bronze.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 15, Slice 2 Various

He did not shake the notes from his pen as pepper from a caster.
Wagner as I Knew Him Ferdinand Christian Wilhelm Praeger

noun
a person or thing that casts
Also castor. a bottle with a perforated top for sprinkling sugar, etc, or a stand containing such bottles
Also castor. a small wheel mounted on a swivel so that the wheel tends to turn into its plane of rotation
noun

any of the four major hereditary classes, namely the Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaisya, and Sudra into which Hindu society is divided See also Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaisya, Sudra
Also called caste system. the system or basis of such classes
the social position or rank conferred by this system

any social class or system based on such distinctions as heredity, rank, wealth, profession, etc
the position conferred by such a system
(entomol) any of various types of specialized individual, such as the worker, in social insects (hive bees, ants, etc)
n.

“person or thing that casts,” late 14c. (also sometimes castor), agent noun from cast (v.). Meaning “pepper shaker, small perforated container” is from 1670s, on notion of “throwing.”

“wheel and swivel attached to furniture,” 1748, agent noun from cast (v.) in the old sense of “turn.” Also sometimes castor.
n.

1550s, “a race of men,” from Latin castus “chaste,” from castus “cut off, separated; pure” (via notion of “cut off” from faults), past participle of carere “to be cut off from” (and related to castration), from PIE *kas-to-, from root *kes- “to cut” (cf. Latin cassus “empty, void”). Originally spelled cast in English and later often merged with cast (n.) in its secondary sense “sort, kind, style.”

Application to Hindu social groups was picked up by English in India 1610s from Portuguese casta “breed, race, caste,” earlier casta raça, “unmixed race,” from the same Latin word. The current spelling of of the English word is from this reborrowing. Caste system is first recorded 1840.
caste
(kāst)

A specialized group carrying out a specific function within a colony of social insects. For example, in an ant colony, members of the caste of workers forage for food outside the colony or tend eggs and larvae, while the members of the caste of soldiers, often larger with stronger jaws, are responsible for defense of the colony.
caste [(kast)]

One of the four hereditary social divisions in Hinduism. Members of any one caste are restricted in their choice of occupation and may have only limited association with members of other castes.

Note: Caste has come to mean a group of persons set apart by economic, social, religious, legal, or political criteria, such as occupation, status, religious denomination, legal privilege, skin color, or some other physical characteristic. Members of a caste tend to associate among themselves and rarely marry outside the caste. Castes are more socially separate from each other than are social classes.

Note: During the height of segregation in the United States, African-Americans were sometimes loosely referred to as a caste.

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