A larva of a caddisfly, especially one used as fishing bait; an alternative term for caddis or cadbait.
Dialectal compound from 'cad' (caddis) + 'bote' (possibly from Old English 'bot' meaning remedy or payment, or a simple suffix). This is an archaic or highly regional British term that has largely fallen out of use except in historical texts or specific dialect regions.
Old English 'bot' originally meant 'remedy' or 'compensation,' and traces of it survive in strange places—like 'cadbote,' where 'bote' might have meant something like 'the remedy for catching fish.' It's like finding a fossil of language evolution hiding in a fishing term.
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