cad

See also: CAD, cad., Čad, Çad, -čad, c.-à-d., and Appendix:Variations of "cad"

English

Etymology

Short for caddie, from Scots, from French cadet, from dialectal capdet (“chief, captain”), from Latin capitellum, diminutive of caput (“head”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kæd/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -æd

Noun

cad (plural cads)

1. A low-bred, presuming person; a mean, vulgar fellow, especially one that can't be trusted with a lady.

   Synonyms: villain, dog, rascal, bounder

   • 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest:

     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?

2. (archaic) A person who stands at the door of an omnibus to open and shut it, and to receive fares; a bus conductor.
   • c. 1835, Charles Dickens, "Omnibuses" (in Sketches by Boz)

     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.

3. (Britain, obsolete, slang) An idle hanger-on about innyards.

Derived terms

• caddish

Translations

person who stands at door

• Dutch: kaartjesverkoper m, kaartjesknipper (nl) m, controleur (nl) m
• Polish: konduktor (pl) (omnibusu)

• Spanish: boletero

mean fellow

• Bulgarian: простак (bg) m (prostak), грубиян (bg) m (grubijan)
• Dutch: vlerk (nl) m
• Polish: łajdak (pl) m

• Russian: грубия́н (ru) m (grubiján), пошляк (ru) m (pošljak)
• Spanish: villano (es)

See also

• no way to treat a lady

Anagrams

• ACD, ADC, CDA, D.Ac., DAC, DAc, DAc., DCA

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Aromanian

Alternative forms

• cadu

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *cadeō, from Latin cadō. Compare Daco-Romanian cădea, cad.

Verb

cad (third-person singular present indicative cadi/cade, past participle cãdzutã)

1. I fall.

Related terms

• cãdeari/cãdeare
• cãderi
• cãdzut
• cãdzui
• scad

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Irish

Etymology

From Old Irish cid, from Proto-Celtic *kʷid, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷid, compare *kʷis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kad̪ˠ/

Pronoun

cad

1. (interrogative) what
2. (Munster) (interrogative) where

   Cad as duit? ― Where are you from?

Synonyms

• céard
• cad é
• caidé

Derived terms

• cad chuige (“why”)
• cad ina thaobh (“why”)

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Maire Ní Mhaonaigh, Sharon Arbuthnot, Dagmar Wodtko, Maire-Luise Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “1 cía”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• “cad” in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, Irish Texts Society, 1st ed., 1904, by Patrick S. Dinneen, page 103.
• "cad" in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.

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Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kad/
• Rhymes: -ad

Verb

cad

1. first-person singular present indicative of cădea
2. first-person singular present subjunctive of cădea
3. third-person plural present indicative of cădea

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Somali

Noun

cad ?

1. white

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Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kaːd/

Etymology 1

From Proto-Brythonic *kad (“battle”), from Proto-Celtic *katus (compare Old Irish cath), from Proto-Indo-European *kéh₃tus (“fight”).

Noun

cad f (plural cadau or cadoedd)

1. battle, army

Derived terms

• Cadan

Etymology 2

Alternative forms

• caed, cafwyd

Verb

cad

1. impersonal preterite of cael

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
cad	gad	nghad	chad
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.