CADET, ka-dee, a word having several significations. It is of French origin, and was written capdet in the 15th centuty, from caps tetto, little chief, inferior head of a family. Fr. pron. kii-de.
1. A younger son of a family; that is, one junior to the eldest or heir by primogeniture; the youngest son; a younger branch — or mem ber of a younger branch — of a family. Thus the brothers Coquelin, the famous French actors, were described as Coquelin otne and Coquelin cadet. The feminine forms are Wide and cadette.
2. In the former French military service before the Revolution — a gentleman who en tered the army without a commission and with out pay to learn the military profession, as was regularly done by the younger sons of the nobility to find a career for themselves. This last was all the more necessary as the droit d'ainesse, which had prevailed in Prance since the 12th century, gave the whole inheritable estate to the eldest son, to the detriment of the younger ones. Since the decree of 15 March 1790, hereditary possessions are equally divided among all the children or their descendants, irrespective of sex and primogeniture.
3. Ajunior clerk in the old East India Company's service.
4. A student in a military or naval college or on a training ship. The body of students in the United States Military Academy at West Point, N. Y., is known as the United States
Corps of Cadets. They constitute part of the army, but are not officers. Graduates are com missioned as 2d lieutenants. The students in the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis; those of the Royal Military Academy at Wool wich, or the Royal Military College at Sand hurst, are termed cadets, or, in the French mili tary sense, a young man designed to become an officer not by rising from the ranks, but by a course of special instruction to qualify him for the position. A midshipman is a naval cadet afloat. In Germany the cadet system is highly developed. The training ships are called Ka dettenschiffe. Cadet schools and corps exist in all the other European armies and navies. The Japanese Cadet School in Tolcio has a teaching staff of 239 and over 1,500 students. In China each provincial capital contains a primary military school, where pupils from 15 to 18 years of age undergo a three years' course, proceed to one of the Four Middle Schools for two years, followed by six months' practical training in the army and finish up with two years in the Military High School at Paotingfu.