Is it 'you are such a card' , or 'you are such a cad'?

[TheDevilWearsPrimark]

Or can it be either, but they have different meanings?

Help me to settle a raging debate I am having with a friend over facebook right now.

[Solitaire]

I thought a card was an amusing type person (non gender specific) and a cad was a bit of a bounder in a male type James Hewitt type fashion

[marina]

Very different

A card is a loveable rascal of any age or gender
A cad is usually a man who gives women the runaround

[Kathyis6incheshigh]

different meanings
cad=a bounder
card=a witty fellow

[MummyDoIt]

A cad would be an insult. Very old-fashioned, as in 'you cad, you bounder'. If you call someone a 'card' it's not insulting, more that they're amusing. Like calling someone a monkey or a pickle.

[MrsMattie]

I always thought a 'card' was someone humorous and a bit unpredictable in their behaviour. A bit of a 'wild card'.
Cad - what Solitaire said.

[Blandmum]

Agree with marina

[morningpaper]

a card is something who is funny

a cad is someone who is probably sleeping with your wife

[SorenLorensen]

Wouldn't Leslie Phillips count as both?

[TheDevilWearsPrimark]

I thought the same, but my friend has suggested 'cad' is no longer an insult.

So if you call your friend a cad, that means you like them, whereas if you called them a cunt...

[Solitaire]

heellooo!

[TheDevilWearsPrimark]

classic Morningpaper, back on form I see!

[OrmIrian]

Different meanings.

[MrsMattie]

Oh yes@Soren. Leslie is a frightful cad, and a bit of a card, too

[Solitaire]

well in these days of laddish behaviour the idea of being a cad maybe considered 'cool', but as far as I'm concerned a cad is a c**t

[marina]

Cad is old-fashioned but unmistakeably pejorative. I would not use it about someone I liked.
"Card" is usually said with affection.

[TheDevilWearsPrimark]

But yet another friend refuses to believe you can use the expression 'card' to describe someone. She totally refuses it.
I haven't found a good online reference to show her.
Perhaps this thread?

[morningpaper]

I don't think you get proper cads these days

They look like Jude Law

[marina]

The Card, a musical about a man who makes everyone laugh

[marina]

Surely Jude Law is a bounder MP

[Bink]

Cad has never been a totally downright insult - obv it means an untrustworthy rogue, but there's always been a hint of admiration there. Cads are usually rather good-looking. Maybe that's what your friend is on about (the "card" distinction thus being a red herring)?

[morningpaper]

yes a bit rogueish

winking at your missus from behind his fag

[marina]

Now you see bink, that's what I understand to be a "bounder". I thought cads were usually called thus by sobbing jilted fiancees

[TheProdigalShow]

here

Definition 7, a card to describe someone.

[Solitaire]

James Hewitt was definatley described as a cad and theres nothing remotely attractive about him

[TheDevilWearsPrimark]

Ah yes a lot of my single male friends appear to style themselves on Jude Law (in appearance, not behaviour) so that could be it.