英文词源
- cadet
- cadet: [17] Etymologically, a cadet is a ‘little head’. Its original meaning in English was ‘younger son or brother’, and it came from French cadet, an alteration of a Gascon dialect term capdet ‘chief’. This in turn derived from Vulgar Latin *capitellus ‘little head’, a diminutive form of Latin caput ‘head’ (from which English also gets captain and chief).
The reason for its apparently rather strange change in meaning from ‘chief’ to ‘younger son’ seems to be that the younger sons of Gascon families were in former times sent to the French court to fulfil the role of officers. When English borrowed French cadet, it did so not only in a form that retained the original spelling, but also as caddie or cadee, which originally meant ‘young officer’.
The Scottish version, caddie, gradually developed in meaning over the centuries through ‘person who runs errands’ to, in the 19th century, ‘golfer’s assistant’. Cad, originally ‘unskilled assistant’ [18], is an abbreviation of caddie or cadee.
=> captain, chief - cadet (n.)
- c. 1610, "younger son or brother," from French cadet "military student officer," noun use of adjective, "younger" (15c.), from Gascon capdet "captain, chief, youth of a noble family," from Late Latin capitellum, literally "little chief," hence, "inferior head of a family," diminutive of Latin caput "head" (see capitulum). "The eldest son being regarded as the first head of the family, the second son the cadet, or little head" [Kitchin].
Apparently younger sons from Gascon noble families were sent to French court to serve as officers, which gave the word its military meaning. In English, the meaning "gentleman entering the military as a profession" is from 1650s, and that of "student at a military college" is from 1775.
中文词源
cadet（军校生）：贵族家庭中的次子
英语单词cadet来自法语， 而最终源头来自拉丁语capitellum，是caput（头）的指小形式，字面意思就是“小首领”，用来表示贵族家庭中的次子。因为中世纪贵族的头衔只能由家中长子继承，所以长子就是家中的首领，而次子只能是“小首领”，只有当哥哥死了才有资格继承贵族头衔。贵族家庭中的次子通常选择从军，希望通过军功来谋取功名。因此，cadet原本用来称呼军营中的这些贵族子弟。后来词义扩大，用来泛指军校或警校中的学生。
cadet：[kə'det] n.军校生，警校生，候补军官，次子
该词的英语词源请访问趣词词源英文版：cadet 词源，cadet 含义。
cadet：军事院校的学生
发音释义：[kə'det] n.军事院校的学生；候补军官；实习生；幼子；次子
词源解释：cadet←法语cadet（军事院校的学生）←法国加斯科涅方言capdet（小首领）←拉丁语capitellum（小首领）←拉丁语caput（头、首领）
中世纪时，贵族的头衔只能由家中长子继承，所以长子就是家中的首领，而其他儿子只能是“小首领”，只有当哥哥死了后才有资格继承贵族头衔。贵族家庭中的小儿子通常选择从军，希望通过军功来谋取功名。cadet原本就是对军营中的这些贵族子弟的称呼，字面意思是“小首领”。后来词义扩大，用来泛指军校或警校中的学生。
词组习语：cadet corps（学生军、学员军训队）；cadet teacher（本身还是学员的实习老师）
cadet：警官学员
来自词根cap, 头。字母p脱落，插入字母d. 即小头领，未来的领导者。
cadet：警校学生，军校学生
这是—个历史奇特而复杂的英语单词。它的历史始于拉丁语caput‘head’（头），caput的指小形式进入法国加斯科涅方言(Gascon French)，作capdet，表示little chief／head。随后进入标准法语，形式演变为cadet。这时cadet被用以指“次子”或“幼子”，尤指谋求军职的贵族次子或幼子。约在17世纪前后cadet越过英吉利海峡来到了苏格兰。据说是苏格兰玛丽女王(Mary，1542 - 1587)将它引入的。接着cadet词形演变为caddie，词义也发生了变化，转指“干杂活的听差”或“跑腿送信的人”，最后用以指受雇为高尔夫球手背球棒和找球、拾球的球童，此义至今仍在使用，在美国一般多拼作caddy。可是cadet到了英格兰之后，除了保留法语原义，也指“军／警校学生”。牛津学生还将caddie缩略为cad，用以表示“靠为大学生服务为生的人”、“小市民（与大学生相对而言）”、“（无教养的）下等人”等义，最后一义至今还用于美国英语。可见，cadet从法语借入英语之后，除了保留原先的形和义，还衍生了caddie／caddy和cad这三种形式以及许多其他词义。除了前面提及的caddy，英语尚有一个意指“茶叶罐”，“茶叶听”的caddy，这是词源迥异的另一个词，源于马来语kati‘catty’（斤）。