cade

cade¹ cask, barrel

Etymology

The word for the cask is borrowed from French cade (“cask, barrel”),^[2][3][4][5] from Latin cadus (“a large earthenware vessel, wine jar; a liquid measure”),^[2][6][7][3] from Ancient Greek κάδος (kádos, “jar, cask”),^[6][7][3][4] which Merriam-Webster and the Shorter Oxford call of Semitic origin, related to a Hebrew word for a pitcher or water jar.^[7][6][8] The Middle English Dictionary derives it from Medieval Latin cada, comparing the classical word.^[9] The Anglo-Norman cade, a barrel of herring, is recorded from 1435.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A barrel of herrings as a measure: 1337, in a document printed in Rogers's history of agriculture and prices.^[2][9] It held six great hundreds of six score each, and later 500.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From 1387 the word was used of a cask or barrel in general, in that record holding twelve gallons.^[2][9] As a fish measure it was later reckoned at 500 herrings or 1,000 sprats,^[7][11] and the OED's last record of the herring sense is from 1866.^[2] In 1599 T. Nashe used a verb cade, to put into a cade or keg, in Lenten Stuffe,^[2] where he also joked that the rebel Jack Cade first put red herrings in cades and gave them his name.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined the noun simply as a barrel.^[12] In the 19th century it survived in dialect in Scotland, East Anglia and Kent, for a cask or keg and for a measure of herrings and sprats; at Aldeburgh a cade of sprats was a thousand.^[13]

Timeline

• 1337 – a barrel of herrings, as a measure (obsolete by 1866).^[2][9]
• 1387 – a cask or barrel.^[2][9]
• 1599 – verb, to put into a cade or keg, in Nashe's Lenten Stuffe.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cask or barrel.^[2][7]
2. (obsolete, 1337–1866) A barrel of herrings used as a measure, later reckoned at 500 herrings or 1,000 sprats.^[2][7][6]

cade² pet lamb

Etymology

The word for the pet lamb is inherited from Middle English cade, also kad and kod,^[1][14] of unknown origin.^{[2][15][6][16][14]} The OED notes that it is unclear whether it was first an adjective, meaning "left by the mother" or "tame", or a noun used attributively, as with pet, and compares the later East Anglian regional word cad, the runt of a litter.^[2] Weekley suggested that it was shortened from an unrecorded compound with lamb, comparing Middle French cadeler (“to pamper, cherish”) in Cotgrave, which he thought probably came from Latin catulus (“puppy, kitten”);^[4] Johnson reports Skinner's derivation from the same French verb.^[12] The OED, however, takes Cotgrave's French form as a misreading of Old Occitan cadel (“little dog”), perhaps confused with the English word, and thinks a link with Old Norse kátr (“merry, cheerful”) unlikely.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A pet lamb: about 1450, in a vocabulary printed by Wright and Wülcker.^[2] Etymonline dates the noun and the adjective to the late 15th century,^[15] and Dictionary.com to 1425–75.^[17]

Semantic evolution

Used before another noun, as in cade lamb, it described a young animal, especially a lamb or colt, left by its mother and reared by hand, from before 1500;^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the adjective to 1551.^[7] From 1607 a cade could also be a foal brought up by hand,^[2] and the Tudor sense could cover a calf.^[18] Johnson (1755) explained cade lamb as a lamb bred at home, and gave the verb as "to breed up in softness".^[12][2] In the dialects of the Midlands and the north it was used of any pet animal, even a tame dove or cat, and of a spoiled child,^[13] a sense the OED and Etymonline date from 1877.^[2][15] In the United States, DARE finds it only around Narragansett Bay and Cape Cod, in southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island.^[19]

Timeline

• c. 1450 – a pet lamb.^[2]
• before 1500 – of a young animal, left by its mother and reared by hand.^[2]
• 1607 – a foal brought up by hand.^[2]
• 1876 – of fruit, fallen (rare).^[2]
• 1877 – a spoiled or petted child.^[2][15]
• 1879 – verb, to rear tenderly.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (dialect) A pet animal, especially a lamb reared by hand.^[7][2][13]
2. (dialect) A spoiled or pampered child.^[2][13]

Adjective

1. Of a young animal, left by its mother and reared by hand: a cade foal.^[7][20][2]
2. Petted, indulged.^[7][13]

cade³ juniper

Etymology

The word for the juniper is borrowed from Middle French cade,^{[7][17][2][21]} from Old Occitan cade,^{[7][8][16][6]} from Medieval Latin catanus (“cedar juniper”),^{[7][6][21][22]} which the American Heritage Dictionary and Klein call Late Latin.^[16][8] The Latin word may come from a pre-Roman language of Gaul, according to the American Heritage Dictionary and the Shorter Oxford,^[16][6] or from a plant name in a substratum language of the Alps and Pyrenees, according to Dictionary.com;^[17] Klein takes it as a Sabine name for a plant with pointed leaves.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The prickly juniper Juniperus oxycedrus, called also prickly cedar: 1575, in G. Gascoigne's Noble Arte of Venerie.^[2][7] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1565–75.^[17]

Semantic evolution

The word is known mainly through oil of cade or cade oil, a bitter dark oil distilled from the tree's wood,^[6][2] used in veterinary surgery^[2] and for skin complaints.^[21]

Timeline

• 1575 – a Mediterranean juniper, the source of oil of cade.^[2][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A Mediterranean juniper, Juniperus oxycedrus, with sharp needles and reddish-brown berries, whose wood yields an oil used to treat skin complaints.^[21][7][2]

Word family

• cade oil