English
cadet
Cadet comes from French cadet ‘cadet, student officer’, from Gascon ‘Gascon person’, and ultimately from Late Latin capitellum ‘small head’.
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEcapitellum1‘small head’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentGascon1‘Gascon person’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentcadet1‘cadet, student officer’
- Englishearliest quotation 1814cadet1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English cadet
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1814, Jane Austen, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton: “Bertram is certainly well off for a cadet of…”.
Lineage
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEcapitellumWiktionary, English cadet‘small head’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentGasconWiktionary, English cadet‘Gascon person’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentcadetWiktionary, English cadet‘cadet, student officer’
- Englishearliest quotation 1814cadetWiktionary, English cadet. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1814, Jane Austen, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton: “Bertram is certainly well off for a cadet of…”
The story
Attested in English from 1634.
Linked words
through French Gascon ‘Gascon person’
through French cadet ‘cadet, student officer’
Today it means
noun A student at a military school who is training to be an officer.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “cadet”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Late Latin capitellum / cadet