Half-caste is a category of people of mixed race or ethnicity. It is derived from the term Caste, which comes from the Latin castus, meaning pure, and the derivative Portuguese and Spanish casta, meaning race.
Half-caste—along with terms such as caste, quarter-caste and others—were widely used by ethnographers in British colonies in attempts to classify natives. In Latin America, the equivalent term for half-castes was Cholo and Zambo.
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