caste mark

noun

1. (in India) a mark, usually on the forehead, symbolizing and identifying caste membership.
2. a distinctive trait, associated with a group or class and marking a person as a member.

Word History and Origins

Origin of caste mark¹

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

As the blinds were lifted after the train left the first small station, the light disclosed, huddled into a far corner seat, a young woman wrapped in the coarsest of white garments, with scarcely an ornament upon her body and no caste mark upon her forehead.

From Project Gutenberg

In one corner sat a Brahmin woman, distinguishable by the refined features of her class rather than the caste mark upon her forehead, but too poor for the greater privacy of a second compartment.

From Project Gutenberg

Each year brings evidence that the lower orders of Britain have acquired another caste mark of the old upper crust.

From Time Magazine Archive

The Shriners' caste mark, worn proudly if sometimes absurdly, is a maroon felt hat that can conceal but does little else for a shiny bald head.

From Time Magazine Archive

"I think I must have been an Indian once," she mused, "perhaps in another life," and turned up at Bombay's Jhaveri Bazaar, with jasmine blossoms in her hair, caste mark on forehead, and a blue-and-gold silk sari.

From Time Magazine Archive