cadet

See also: Cadet

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French cadet, from Gascon capdet, from Late Latin capitellum (small head). Attested in English from 1634.[1][2]

Doublet of caddie, cadeau, cadel, capital, capitellum, and caudillo.

Pronunciation

Noun

cadet (plural cadets)

  1. A student at a military school who is training to be an officer.
  2. (chiefly history) A younger or youngest son, who would not inherit as a firstborn son would.
    • 1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter V, in Mansfield Park: [], volume II, London: [] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, [], →OCLC, page 114:
      Bertram is certainly well off for a cadet of even a Baronet's family. By the time he is four or five and twenty he will have seven hundred a year, and nothing to do for it.
  3. (in compounds, chiefly in genealogy) Junior. (See also the heraldic term cadency.)
    a cadet branch of the family
  4. (archaic, US, slang) A young man who makes a business of ruining girls to put them in brothels.
  5. (New Zealand, historical) A young gentleman learning sheep farming at a station; also, any young man attached to a sheep station.
  6. (Australia) A participant in a cadetship.

Derived terms

Translations

References

  1. ^ cadet”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
  2. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2025), “cadet”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Further reading

Anagrams

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Occitan capdet, from Late Latin capitellum (small head). Doublet of chapiteau, cadeau, and caudillo.

Pronunciation

Adjective

cadet (feminine cadette, masculine plural cadets, feminine plural cadettes)

  1. (family) younger, youngest
    le fils cadetthe youngest son
    mon frère cadetmy younger brother

Noun

cadet m (plural cadets)

  1. cadet, student officer
  2. junior sportsperson, young player
  3. a younger sibling
    Synonym: puîné
    Coordinate terms: aîné, benjamin

Derived terms

Descendants

See also

Further reading

Anagrams

Latin

Verb

cadet

  1. third-person singular future active indicative of cadō

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French cadet.

Noun

cadet m (plural cadeți)

  1. cadet

Declension

Declension of cadet
singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative-accusative cadet cadetul cadeți cadeții
genitive-dative cadet cadetului cadeți cadeților
vocative cadetule cadeților