Present participle of cad; fishing with caddis larvae, or practicing dishonorable behavior (depending on which sense of 'cad' is used).
Present participle of 'cad', adding '-ing' to indicate ongoing action. In fishing contexts, it derives from the noun/verb 'cad' (caddis). The form can also relate to the noun 'cad' (a dishonorable man), creating a semantic overlap typical of homographs in English.
The word 'cad' is a perfect example of homonyms—different words that sound identical but mean completely different things. Fishing 'cadding' means using caddis larvae for bait, while social 'cadding' would mean acting dishonorably. Medieval documents with both meanings would be hilariously ambiguous.
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