cadet

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kəˈdɛt/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French cadet,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Gascon capdet “chief, captain”,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Late Latin capitellum (“little head”),^[2][5][3] a diminutive of Latin caput (“head”).^[2][3][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A younger son or brother (1610).^[7][3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

The eldest son was regarded as the head of the family and a younger son as a “little head”.^[4] Younger sons of noble Gascon families commonly served as officers in the French army,^[3][4] so the word came to mean a gentleman who entered the army to learn the profession and win a commission (1651).^[3][4][7] From this came the sense of a student at a military or naval academy (1775).^[3][4][7] In New Zealand a cadet was a young man learning sheep-farming (1842).^[7][1] The Scottish form cadee gave caddie.^[4]

Timeline

• 1610 – a younger son or brother.^[7][3][5]
• 1646 – the youngest son.^[7]
• 1651 – a gentleman entering the army to train as an officer.^[3][4]
• 1775 – a student at a military college.^[7][3][4]
• 1842 – New Zealand, a young man learning sheep-farming.^[7]
• 1873 – a schoolboy receiving military training.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A student training to be an officer, especially at a military academy.
2. A younger son or brother, or the youngest son.
3. A trainee in a business or profession.
4. (slang) A pimp.

Word family

• cadetship
• space cadet

Related words

• cadette
• caddie
• cad
• capital
• chief

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press