Meanings
adjectivehalf-caste (not comparable)
- derogatorynot comparableOf mixed racial descent.
It was the racist, settler colonialism that created whiteness, that created blackness, half-caste, quarter-caste, octoroon, that saw mixed-race people as a third race.
2021 November 7, Claire [G.] Coleman, “Not quite blak enough: ‘The people who think I am too white to be Aboriginal are all white’”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 03 Dec 2021
nounhalf-caste (plural half-castes)
plural half-castes
- derogatoryA person of mixed racial descent.
AO Neville, the Protector of Aborigines in Western Australia until the 1930s, railed against the risk of the creation of a ‘third race’ of half-castes.
2021 November 7, Claire [G.] Coleman, “Not quite blak enough: ‘The people who think I am too white to be Aboriginal are all white’”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 03 Dec 2021
Origin
Cite this entry
APA
half-caste. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/half-caste
MLA
“half-caste.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/half-caste. Accessed November 3, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “half-caste,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/half-caste.
Source: half-caste on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.