cadre

Etymology

Borrowed from French cadre, from Italian quadro (“framed painting, square”), from Latin quadrum, from quattuor (“four”). The American pronunciations in /eɪ/ may be due to a mistaken assumption that this word comes from Spanish or Italian, when in fact it is strictly French (the Spanish and Italian equivalents are respectively cuadro and quadro).

noun

1. A frame or framework.
   […] He took away the frame itself, as well as the notice. 1848, Parliamentary Papers, volume 27, page 283
2. (military) The framework or skeleton upon which a new regiment is to be formed; the officers of a regiment forming the staff.
   From the original plan, thirty-four cadre battalions, with a total of 116 companies, had actually been formed, a total of about 700 officers and another 600 key enlisted men. 2002, Barry M. Stentiford, chapter 9, in The American Home Guard: the State Militia in the Twentieth Century, page 202
3. (chiefly in communism) The core of a managing group, or a member of such a group.
   After the war, he was a party cadre and worked as a correspondent for the daily newspaper Zeri i Popullit (The People's Voice). 1986, Robert Elsie, Dictionary of Albanian Literature, page 101
   Finally, the exchange, circulation and education of local cadres constitute another key strategy implemented by the provincial leadership in its efforts to diffuse economic development into the backward inland region. 1997, Jae Ho Chung, edited by David S.G. Goodman, China's Provinces in Reform: Class, community and political culture, Routledge, page 146
   Party cadres must guard against the temptations of power, money and sex. 2006, “China airbrushes Chen”, in Financial Times
4. A small group of people specially trained for a particular purpose or profession.