cadet
nounUS, UK /kəˈdɛt/
Etymology Borrowed from French cadet, from Gascon capdet, from Late Latin capitellum (“small head”). Attested in English from 1634. Doublet of caddie, cadeau, cadel, capital, capitellum, and caudillo.
1
A student at a military school who is training to be an officer.
2
History, Human sciences, Sciences A younger or youngest son, who would not inherit as a firstborn son would.
- 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.1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter V, in Mansfield Park: […], volume II, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 114:
3
In compounds, In genealogy Junior. (See also the heraldic term cadency.)
- a cadet branch of the family
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
- air cadet, cadet blue, cadet branch, cadetcy, cadet gray, cadet grey, cadet house, officer cadet, space cadet
- Related terms
- cadette