Meanings
castellite1
Castellite2
plural Castellites
- A religious group in western North Carolina during the late 19th century. Mormon missionaries encountered them and found that they were enemies, not converts.
1 more example
Of late years Mormon missionaries from Utah have reaped a rich harvest in this region, and in parts of Swain and Haywood counties a peculiar sect, known as Castellites, has arisen whose exercises seem to be of a highly emotional character, as it is a common remark that every one who joins the Castellites goes crazy.
1913, Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders - A resident of Castelle,Texas.
Life here was not easy. For the first couple of years, Castellites depended heavily on supplies and support from the people of Fredericksburg, who had problems enough of their own. A round trip to Fredericksburg—about 50 miles—took 4 days.
2001, Richard Zelade, Hill Country
Origin
castellite · noun
From Castelli + -ite, from the surname of its discoverer, Herr Bergverwalter Castelli.
Full word history & related roots →Castellite · noun
Possibly from a very brief 19th-century Mormon settlement in Castell, Texas, which, like all Mormon communities, sent out missionaries. Identifying "Utah" as the source of the Castellite missionaries in the quote below may have been based on the common contemporaneous assumption that all Mormons were based in Utah.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
castellite. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/castellite
“castellite.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/castellite. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “castellite,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/castellite.
Source: castellite on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.