cad en · NOUN · etymology 1
Pronunciation
- /kæd/
- (Southern-England) audio
Etymology
Short for caddie, from Scots, from French cadet, from Occitan capdet (“chief, captain”), from Latin capitellum, diminutive of caput (“head”).
Meanings
-
A low-bred, presuming person; a mean, vulgar fellow, especially one that cannot be trusted with a lady.
I make him sound like a cad, but he’s not. Early on, when I fell seriously ill, he cared for me devotedly. He’s witty, sweet, a great cook and easy on the eyes.
2025 February 28, Laura Esther Wolfson, “Rules for Staying Close to Exes”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:The most rapid and most seductive transition in all human nature is that which attends the palliation of a ravenous appetite.[…]Can those harmless but refined fellow-diners be the selfish cads whose gluttony and personal appearance so raised your contemptuous wrath on your arrival?
1921, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
-
(archaic) A person who stands at the door of an omnibus to open and shut it, and to receive fares; a bus conductor.
We will back the machine in which we make our daily peregrination from the top of Oxford-street to the city, against any buss on the road, whether it be for the gaudiness of its exterior, the perfect simplicity of its interior, or the native coolness of its cad.
c. 1835, Charles Dickens, "Omnibuses" (in Sketches by Boz)I’ve fallen asleep on my step as the ’bus was going on, and almost fallen off. I have often to put up with insolence from vulgar fellows, who think it fun to chaff a cad, as they call it.
1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, published 1861:
- (Ireland, UK, obsolete, slang) An idle hanger-on about innyards.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| cads | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Deriveds
Relateds
Synonyms
dog · villain · bounder · rascal
Translations (18)
es villano (mean fellow) · de Flegel (mean fellow) · ru грубия́н (mean fellow) · nl controleur (person who stands at door) · pl łajdak (mean fellow) · ru пошляк (mean fellow) · tr keçi (mean fellow) · nl vlerk (mean fellow) · bg грубиян (mean fellow) · es boletero (person who stands at door) · cs hulvát (mean fellow) · nl kaartjesverkoper (person who stands at door) · bg простак (mean fellow) · ru хам (mean fellow) · cs sprosťák (mean fellow) · pl konduktor (omnibusu) (person who stands at door) · cs nevychovanec (mean fellow) · nl kaartjesknipper (person who stands at door)