Java™ Language Specification, Third Edition, The

Chapter 8. Classes

	class 1. The noun class derives fromMedieval French and French classe from Latin classis,probably originally a summons,hence a summoned collection of persons,a group liable to be summoned:perhaps for callassis from calare,to call, hence to summon.
	--Eric Partridge Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English

Class declarations define new reference types and describe how they are implemented (§8.1).

A nested class is any class whose declaration occurs within the body of another class or interface. A top level class is a class that is not a nested class.

This chapter discusses the common semantics of all classes—top level (§7.6) and nested (including member classes (§8.5, §9.5), local classes (§14.3) and anonymous ...