Half-caste
（重定向自Half Caste）
![Last of the Tasmanians Woodcut 12 - Walter George Arthur with his half-caste wife Mary Anne](/Images/godic/202501/16/Last_of_the_Tasmanians_Woodcut_12_-_Walter_George_Arthur_and_Mary_Anne3646.jpg")
![In the 19th century, paintings of half-caste people were in demand and eagerly traded in Europe. Above painting shows Mestizo with caption.](/Images/godic/202501/16/Mestizo3646.jpg")
![The term half-caste was widely used by colonial administrators in the 19th- and 20th-century British empire. In Spanish colonies, other terms were in use for half-caste people; above painting, for example, shows a Zamba. The caption India in the painting refers to native Indian American woman.](/Images/godic/202501/16/Zambo3646.jpg")
Half-caste is a term for 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, and is generally considered offensive but not always (such as in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands).