half-caste
Also half-cast.
† 1. A mixed caste; a race sprung from the union of two castes or races. Obs.
| 1798 Wellesley in Owen Desp. 15 Several of them are Caffres and people of half-cast. |
2. One of a mixed race, a half-breed; esp., in India, one born or descended from a European father and native mother.
| 1789 Munro Narr. Milit. Oper. 51 (Y.) Mulattoes, or as they are called in the East Indies, half-casts. 1840 Arnold in Stanley Life & Corr. (1844) II. ix. 200 To organize and purify Christian Churches of whites and half-castes. 1884 Century Mag. XXVII. 919 Much as we admired the Maori race, we were even more struck by the half-castes. |
3. attrib. (from 1.)
| 1793 Dirom Narr. Campaign India 11 (Y.) Half-cast people of Portuguese and French extraction. 1859 Lang Wand. India 284 The daughter of a half-caste merchant. 1869 Freeman Norm. Conq. III. xiii. 263 No half-caste offspring of Norman or even of..Flemish mothers, but Englishmen of purely English blood. |
Hence half-castism, a half-caste system.
| 1896 Westm. Gaz. 27 June 8/1 The problem of Half-castism which slavery has been mainly instrumental in bequeathing to South Africa. |