'anti-caste' originates from modern English, formed by the prefix 'anti-' (from Greek 'anti' meaning 'against') + 'caste' (from Portuguese 'casta' meaning 'lineage' or 'breed', ultimately from Latin 'castus' meaning 'pure').

'caste' entered English from Portuguese/Spanish 'casta' in the 16th–17th centuries and came to mean a hereditary social grouping; the productive prefix 'anti-' (from Greek) has been widely used in modern English to form oppositional compounds such as 'anti-caste', which arose in sociopolitical discourse in the 19th–20th centuries and later.

Originally 'caste' referred to lineage or distinct hereditary groups; combining it with 'anti-' yielded a term that initially meant 'against caste' in a literal sense and evolved into a label for political positions, movements, or descriptors opposing caste-based systems and discrimination.