caddie

The American professional golfer Stacy Lewis with her caddie (left; sense 2).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkædi/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkædi/, [-ɾi]
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑdi/
• Homophones: caddy, cattie, catty (the latter two in dialects with flapping)
• Rhymes: -ædi
• Hyphenation: cad‧die

The noun is borrowed from Scots caddie (“military cadet; young man; ragamuffin; person engaged to run errands; person hired to assist a golfer”), from French cadet (“army cadet; younger sibling”),[1] from capdet (“captain; chief”) (Gascony, archaic), from Late Latin capitettum, from Latin caput (“head”),[2] ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“head”). Doublet of cadel, cadet, capital, capitellum, caudillo, and Kadet.

The verb is derived from the noun.[3][4]

caddie (plural caddies)

1. (Scotland)
   1. (also attributively, obsolete) Synonym of cadet (“a gentleman (often a younger son from a noble family) who joined the military without a commission as a career”)
   2. (by extension, archaic) A young man; a boy, a lad; specifically (derogatory), one regarded as of low social status; a ragamuffin.
      • [1786, Robert Burns, “The Author’s Earnest Cry and Prayer, to the Right Honorable and Honorable, the Scotch Representatives in the House of Commons”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, volume I, Kilmarnock, Scotland: […] John Wilson, →OCLC; reprinted Kilmarnock, Scotland: […] James M‘Kie, 1867, →OCLC, page 35:

        But gie him't het, my hearty cocks! / E'en cowe the cadie!]

   3. (by extension, historical) A person engaged to run errands such as carrying goods and messages; a commissionaire, an errand boy or errand girl, a gofer; specifically, a member of an organized group of such persons working in large Scottish cities and towns in the early 18th century.
      • 1818 July 25, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter IX, in Tales of My Landlord, Second Series, […] (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), volume II, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Company, →OCLC, page 222:

        A tattered cadie, or errand porter, whom David Deans had jostled in his attempt to extricate himself from the vicinity of the scorners, exclaimed in a strong north-country tone, "Ta de'il ding out her Cameronian een—what gi'es her titles to dunch gentlemans about?"

      • 1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XXIV, in Lady Trevelyan (Hannah More Macaulay), editor, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume V, London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, →OCLC, page 209:

        There would be a prosperity such as might seem fabulous, a prosperity of which every Scotchman, from the peer to the cadie, would partake.

2. (by extension, golf, also attributively) A person hired to assist a golfer by carrying their golf clubs and providing advice.
   • 1897 (date written), Paul T. B. Ward, quotee, “19th Hole: The Readers Take Over”, in Sports Illustrated, volume 19, number 4, Chicago, Ill.: Time Inc., published 22 July 1963, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 60:

     As caddy I had to carry the clubs, for there are four varieties almost everyone used, and some used more. Besides doing this, the caddy has to keep score of the number of strokes used, and watch and find each ball.

   • 1921 March, Octavus Roy Cohen, “Follow Through”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LXXII, number 2, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], →OCLC, page 370, column 1:

     Then Carter Chapman picked out his putter, stepped confidently up to the ball, sighted once along the ground, and made his stroke. The ball rolled straight as a die toward the caddy who was holding the flag, and tinkled into the cup for a birdie three!

• cady (obsolete)
• (military): cadie
• (young man): cadie
• (person engaged to run errands): caddy, cadie
• (golf): caddy

• forecaddie

caddie (third-person singular simple present caddies, present participle caddying or caddieing, simple past and past participle caddied)

1. (intransitive, golf) Chiefly followed by for: to serve as a caddie (noun sense 2) for a golfer.
   • 1897 (date written), Paul T. B. Ward, quotee, “19th Hole: The Readers Take Over”, in Sports Illustrated, volume 19, number 4, Chicago, Ill.: Time Inc., published 22 July 1963, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 60:

     We took turns caddying, one caddying, two playing. We went out across the river to the teeing ground of the first hole.

   • 1917 July, George Weston, chapter VI, in The Apple-tree Girl: The Story of Little Miss Moses, who Led Herself into the Promised Land, Philadelphia, Pa., London: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, published 1918, →OCLC, page 100:

     The next day the thirty-two qualifying players were paired off into sixteen sets of opponents. Charlotte was matched against a girl from California. After the first few minutes, the result was never in doubt. "Take it easy, miss," said the highly gratified Mr. Ogilvie, who was caddying for Charlotte. "You hold her in the hollow of your hand."

   • 1923 May 17, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “Introducing Claude and Eustace”, in The Inimitable Jeeves, Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books, published 1979, →ISBN, page 63:

     The scheme had been, if I remember, that after lunch I should go off and caddy for Honoria on a shopping tour down Regent Street; but when she got up and started collecting me and the rest of her things, Aunt Agatha stopped her.

     A transferred use.

• caddy

A variant of caddy (etymology 1).

caddie (plural caddies)

1. Alternative spelling of caddy

• caddie on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “caddie”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “caddy”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

• Eddaic, addice

From English caddie.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkædi/, [ˈk̟ædi]

caddie

1. caddie

• “caddie”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎ (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-02

• caddy (golf)

From cadet.

• IPA^(key): /ka.di/

caddie m (plural caddies)

1. shopping cart (conveyance used to carry items while shopping)

   Synonym: chariot

2. (golf) caddie

• “caddie”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• décadi
• décida

From French cadet.

caddie (plural caddies)

1. caddie
2. a youth or boy who does odd jobs

• → English: caddie, caddy, cad

Borrowed from English caddie.

caddie m or f by sense (plural caddies)

1. caddie (in golf)

• “caddie”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014

From English caddie.

caddie c

1. (golf) a caddie (golfer's assistant)

• caddie in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• caddie in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)