Cad

subs. (popular).—A term of contempt now generally applied to an offensively ill-bred person, irrespective of social position. Formerly used of underlings and others performing menial offices. [Murray favours its origin in cadet and the popular forms cadee and caddie. See, however, CADATOR, the quotations under which appear to suggest a collateral, if an independent origin. Some regard the word as a contraction of ‘cidger’; whilst others trace it to the Scotch ‘cadie’ or ‘caddie,’ an errand boy—now an attendant at golf; or to the slang University sense of the word, a non-member]. The vocable has passed through a variety of meanings.

  1.  Passengers taken up by coach drivers for their own profit.  [M.]

  2.  (obsolete).—A chum or companion.

  3.  (old).—An assistant.

  4.  (old).—An omnibus conductor.

  1833.  HOOD, A Sketch on thes Road. Though I am a CAD now, I was once a coachman.  [M.]

  1836.  DICKENS, Pickwick Papers, ch. xxxiii., p. 279. He paused, and contemplated, with a face of great calmness and philosophy, the numerous CADS and drivers of short stages who assemble near that famous place of resort [the Mansion-House].

  1851–61.  H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, vol. III., p. 355. The conductor, who is vulgarly known as the CAD, stands on a small projection at the end of the omnibus.

  5.  A messenger or errand boy.

  1835.  HOOK, Gilbert Gurney, I. vii. I will start alone, and appear to know no more of you, than one of the CADS of the thimble-rig knows of the pea-holder.

  1839.  HOOD, Miss Kilmansegg and Her Precious Leg, p. 230.

  1843.  HEWLETT, College Life, I., p. 115. Tom Webb’s boy, who went as cad with the dog.

  6.  (university and public schools’).—A contemptuous term applied to non-school or non-University men. At Cambridge SNOB, the word Thackeray used, has long been a common term for a townsman; now the undergrad says TOWNEE or TOWNER (q.v.). The German analogue is Philister. Dr. Günther (Jena and Its Environs) tells that of the old towers and gates which formed the entrance to Jena, the square one to the west alone remains; and is remarkable not only for its prison, called ‘The Cheese-Basket,’ but for four images of monkeys’ heads carved at the several corners of the gate itself. In a quarrel between students and townsfolk in the vicinity of the Johannis-Thor, the former dubbed the watchmen there ‘the monkey watchmen.’ The guard vowed vengeance, and one evening killed a student who had taken no part in the disturbance. The ecclesiastical superintendent, Götz, preached a sermon at the boy’s funeral from Judges xvi. 20, ‘The Philistines be upon thee, Samson!’ and that night his text was heard in the street, Philister über dir Samson!’ Henceforward the citizens were called ‘Philister’ by the students; and, the name being exported to the other Universities, it came at length to be applied to burgher folk throughout Germany. According to some this fight occurred in 1693. For synonyms, see RANK OUTSIDER.

  1831.  HONE, The Year Book, 670. Preceded by one or two bands of music in two boats, rowed by ‘CADS.’

  1853.  REV. E. BRADLEY (‘Cuthbert Bede’), The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, an Oxford Freshman, I., p., 117. And I can chaff a CAD.

  1860.  Macmillan’s Magazine, March, p. 327. You don’t think a gentleman can lick a CAD, unless he is the biggest and strongest of the two.

  1873.  The Saturday Review, September, p. 305. At Oxford the population of the University and city is divided into ‘Dons, men and CADS.’

  7.  (general).—A vulgar, ill-mannered person; a blackguard, i.e., a person incapable of moral decency. For synonyms, see SNIDE.

  1849.  C. KINGSLEY, Alton Locke. ‘The CADS’ ‘the snobs,’ ‘the blackguards,’ looked on with a dislike, contempt, and fear which they were not backward to return.

  1860.  THACKERAY, Lovel the Widower, 245. There’s a set of CADS in that club that will say anything.

  1880.  Punch’s Almanack, 12, ‘The Cad’s Calendar,’ September.

  1882.  T. A. GUTHRIE (‘F. Anstey’), Vice Versâ, ch. vii. Perhaps your old governor has been making a CAD of himself then, and you’re out of sorts with him.

  1889.  Answers, Feb. 23, p. 205, col. 3. You wouldn’t care to know Goodfellow, Miss Smart; he’s awfully bad form—a regular CAD, you know.