Can a cad be female?  If not, is there a female equivalent?

Slut?  Tramp?

I’d say it applied only to males and the OED entry seems to confirm it

5. colloq. A fellow of low vulgar manners and behaviour. (An offensive and insulting appellation.)

BTW does that definition seem a little off to anybody else, especially other Britons? When one thinks of cads and caddish behaviour, as reflected in movies, one thinks of George Sanders, Dennis Price, and, in the comic sense, of Terry-Thomas and Cardew the Cad. The ‘low vulgar manners and behaviour’ would apply to none of these in the roles they portrayed but they were certainly thought of and discussed as cads.

This would appear to be one of the original OED entries that has never been updated. I suspect that the euphemistic definition is a Victorian relic. They should get around to editing the C’s in 2025 or so.

I agree that there is no female equivalent. “Slut” or “tramp” don’t cut it. A cad is not simply promiscuous, but rather he is someone who takes advantage of others for his own pleasure or gain.

How about cadette?

Dave Wilton - 21 May 2007 05:53 AM

How about cadette?

That has the added bonus of reflecting the putative origins of cad from cadet.

BTW checking the suffix -ette in OED I was surprised to find that its secondary feminine sense (the primary is a diminutive, of course) only goes back as far as the 1920s (or at least that’s the first cited instance).

2. Used to denote a female, as in MAJORETTE, SUFFRAGETTE, USHERETTE.

1921 H. L. MENCKEN Amer. Lang. (ed. 2) vi. 187 The wide use of the suffix -ette in such terms as farmerette, conductorette,..usherette and huskerette, is due to the same effort to make one word do the work of two. 1939 New Yorker 11 Nov., The girls employed to annoy visitors to some kind of Chamber of Commerce festival in Southern California will be called welcomettes. 1942 in Amer. Speech (1943) XVIII. 147 Roosevelt Signs ‘Sailorette’ Bill… Usherette in the..movie theater… Chicago tries ‘Copettes’. 1970 Women Speaking Apr. 5/2 Female teams are called Rockettes, Mercurettes, Atomettes.

You people were not paying attention during the Sonny and Cher show:

She was a scamp, a camp, and a bit of a tramp,
She was a v-a-m-p - VAMP!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAN2zTClbyI

Then there was “Hard Hearted Hannah, the vamp of Savannah.”

Well done, Myridon.  The OED has this to say about vamp

[Abbrev. of VAMPIRE n.]

A woman who intentionally attracts and exploits men; an adventuress; a Jezebel; freq. as a stock character in plays and films.
a1911 CHESTERTON Lunacy & Letters (1958) xxxvi. 178 Thackeray took it for granted that Mary Stuart was a vamp.

aldiboronti - 21 May 2007 06:11 AM

Dave Wilton - 21 May 2007 05:53 AM

How about cadette?

That has the added bonus of reflecting the putative origins of cad from cadet.

BTW checking the suffix -ette in OED I was surprised to find that its secondary feminine sense (the primary is a diminutive, of course) only goes back as far as the 1920s (or at least that’s the first cited instance).

2. Used to denote a female, as in MAJORETTE, SUFFRAGETTE, USHERETTE.

I’d have thought there had to be an earlier cite for suffragette in existence as they had won the battle for the vote by the 1920s hadn’t they?

Must have a look round

"Suffragette” is cited from 1906. The citations listed in the entry for -ette per se are only for formations using the suffix that don’t have an entry of their own.

I don’t think a vamp is a female cad.  A cad exploits women whom he regards as being socially inferior, for either money or sex; a vamp exploits men whom she regards as fair game, for her own sexual gratification, though she doesn’t necessarily regard them as her social inferior.

Having said that, I don’t think there is a female equivalent of cad.  I like cadette though.  Rhymes with ladette.  Next up female equivalents: badette (naughty but nice), fadette (picky eater), hadette (has-been), sadette (to be pitied).

Ha! I like those, eliza. How about tradette (staid and traditional), gladette (considers herself plain and is pleased with whatever attention she gets), dadette (looking for a father-figure), vladette (goth, fancies herself a vampire), chadette (political, will start talking about Florida and fixed elections at the most inappropriate times).

OK, I’ll stop now.

I don’t think there is a female equivalent of cad

I’d post her name but there are laws…

I think the problem is that a woman of superior social standing who uses a man insincerely for sex and money and then cruelly dashes his heart, well that sort of thing just isn’t done. Usually it’s one or the other. I did have a workmate who at 48 was in incredible physical condition; he could outwork men 20 years his junior at some of the hardest work I’ve ever seen (I couldn’t attempt it) and then go jog 5 miles or play tennis after work. As to his looks, he had been a TV actor in the prime years of the Good Looking Male. At the time, he was dating one of the wealthiest socialites in San Francisco. Alas, such things never last, the two broke up and she then dated a stockbroker, who had plenty of money.

How about “bitch”? “Shrew”? “Vixen”?

Bitches and shrews are nags and ill-tempered, which are not elements of cadery.

Vixen is an interesting word, but I don’t think it’s really synonymous with cad. The OED equates it with shrew, a definition I never associated with vixen. The last cite is from the 19th century--another word I don’t think has been updated since the first edition. Merriam-Webster also gives a definition of a sexually attractive woman--which I take as its primary meaning today. I don’t know if this represents and American v. British difference, or if this second sense is a later development. In neither case, is it synonymous with cad.

Dave Wilton - 22 May 2007 05:56 AM

Vixen is an interesting word, but I don’t think it’s really synonymous with cad. The OED equates it with shrew, a definition I never associated with vixen. The last cite is from the 19th century--another word I don’t think has been updated since the first edition. Merriam-Webster also gives a definition of a sexually attractive woman--which I take as its primary meaning today.

Is that where the adjective “foxy” comes from?

ElizaD - 21 May 2007 09:48 AM

I don’t think a vamp is a female cad.  A cad exploits women whom he regards as being socially inferior, for either money or sex; a vamp exploits men whom she regards as fair game, for her own sexual gratification, though she doesn’t necessarily regard them as her social inferior.

I’ve never thought of the cad’s prey as being his social inferior.  I’d be interested to know where you get that from.

(Thinks of “Have Some Madiera, M’dear)