Cad and Bounder Redux

A couple of weeks back, I asked how to distinguish a “cad” from a “bounder (link). Turns out this ground was plowed a year ago over at Kevin Drum (link). Here’s the shorter Kevin Drum and friends, I think: a cad is a man who misbehaves with women. A bounder is an upstart.

Whether a bounder can be a cad is, perhaps, a more subtle question. Certainly a bounder can misbehave with women. But my sober considered judgment is that if a bounder does it, it’s no more than you would expect from a bounder. To achieve real caddishness takes something more—money and power perhaps, but at least position.