different between description vs caste

English

Etymology

From Old French description, from Latin d?scr?pti?, noun of action of d?scr?b? (“I describe”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d??sk??p??n/

Noun

description (countable and uncountable, plural descriptions)

1. A sketch or account of anything in words; a portraiture or representation in language; an enumeration of the essential qualities of a thing or species.
2. The act of describing; a delineation by marks or signs.
3. A set of characteristics by which someone or something can be recognized.

   The zoo had no lions, tigers, or cats of any description.

4. (taxonomy) A scientific documentation of a taxon for the purpose of introducing it to science.

   The type description of the fungus was written by a botanist.

5. (linguistics) The act or practice of recording and describing actual language usage in a given speech community, as opposed to prescription, i.e. laying down norms of language usage.
6. (linguistics) A descriptive linguistic survey.

Synonyms

• (characteristics): sort, kind, type, variety

Derived terms

Related terms

• describe
• descriptive

Translations

See also

• prescription
• descriptivism

Further reading

• description in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• description in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

See also

• synopsis
• interpretation

Anagrams

• discerption, predictions

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin d?scripti?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d?s.k?ip.sj??/
• Homophone: descriptions

Noun

description f (plural descriptions)

1. description

Related terms

• décrire
• descriptif

Further reading

• “description” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Old French

Etymology

From Latin d?scripti?.

Noun

description f (oblique plural descriptions, nominative singular description, nominative plural descriptions)

1. description

Related terms

• descrivre

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Portuguese or Spanish casta (“lineage, breed, race”), of uncertain origin. The OED derives it from Portuguese casto (“chaste”), from Latin castus.Coromines (1987) argues instead for a hypothetical Gothic form *???????????????????? (*kasts), cognate with English cast, from Proto-Germanic *kastuz.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: käst, IPA^(key): /k??st/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /kæst/
• Homophones: cast, karst (in non-rhotic accents)
• Rhymes: -??st

Noun

caste (plural castes)

1. Any of the hereditary social classes and subclasses of South Asian societies.

   Hyponyms: Brahmin, Kshatriya, Shudra, Vaishya, varna

2. A separate and fixed order or class of persons in society who chiefly associate with each other.
3. (zoology) A class of polymorphous eusocial insects of a particular size and function within a colony.

Derived terms

• casteless

Translations

Anagrams

• Cates, Stace, cates, scate, sceat, taces

Dutch

Verb

caste

1. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of casten

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Portuguese casta, probably of Gothic and Germanic origin, or alternatively from a derivative of Latin castus.

Noun

caste f (plural castes)

1. caste (hereditary class)
2. class (social position)

References

• “caste” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Galician

Alternative forms

• casta

Etymology

Probably from Gothic *???????????????????? (*kasts), from Proto-Germanic *kastuz, *kast?n? (“to throw, cast”), compare English cast.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?kaste?/

Noun

caste f (plural castes)

1. species, race or kind
   • 1853, Juan Manuel Pintos, A Gaita Gallega, Pontevedra: Impr. de D. José e D. Primitivo Vilas, page 29:

     Por aquí nacen os ricos polo outro probes labregos. Estas son as dúas castes que hai en todo o mundo inteiro.

     Here the rich people are born, there the poor peasants; these are the two races that there are in the whole world

2. quality
   • 1859, Ramón Barros Silvelo, Un dia de desfertuna, page 3:

     Dime logo que o probe do animal ou é de mala caste, ou ben non come

     He readily told me that the animal [that I was selling] either was of bad quality, or either it didn't eat

3. progeny; group of people that share a common ancestor
   • 1853, Juan Manuel Pintos, A Gaita Gallega, Pontevedra: Impr. de D. José e D. Primitivo Vilas, page 8:

     { soy llamado Pedro Luces ... } - To to to, vamos con tento que un home con ese nome pode ser caste do demo.

     {I am called Peter Lights...} —Wo wo wo! Let us be careful: a man with that name could de a Devil's child.

   Synonyms: estirpe, fruxe, liñaxe

Derived terms

• castizar (“to mate”)
• castizo (“stud pig”)
• de caste (“selected”)

References

• “caste” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006-2013.
• “caste” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.
• “caste” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.

Italian

Adjective

caste

1. feminine plural of casto

Noun

caste f

1. plural of casta

Anagrams

• cesta

Latin

Etymology 1

From castus +? -?.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?kas.te?/, [?käs?t?e?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?kas.te/, [?k?st??]

Adverb

cast? (comparative castius, superlative castissim?)

1. purely, spotlessly, virtuously
2. piously, religiously

Etymology 2

Inflected form of castus.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?kas.te/, [?käs?t??]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?kas.te/, [?k?st??]

Adjective

caste

1. vocative masculine singular of castus

References

• caste in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• caste in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• caste in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette