Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A mark or quality, as of distinction, individuality, or authenticity.
  • noun Great prestige or appeal.
  • noun A seal on a document, such as a letter.
  • noun A commemorative design stamped on an envelope to mark a postal or philatelic event.
  • noun A motto forming part of a postal cancellation.
  • noun A kind of wafer capsule formerly used by pharmacists for presenting an unpleasant-tasting drug.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A distinguishing mark or stamp.
  • noun In pharmacy, a hollow wafer containing medicine in powder form.
  • noun A seal.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A seal, as of a letter.
  • noun a sealed letter, especially a letter or missive emanating from the sovereign; -- much used in France before the Revolution as an arbitrary order of imprisonment.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A special characteristic or quality.
  • noun archaic A seal, as of a letter.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a warrant formerly issued by a French king who could warrant imprisonment or death in a signed letter under his seal
  • noun a seal on a letter
  • noun an indication of approved or superior status

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Old French, from cacher, to press; see cache.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French cachet.

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Examples

  • "High School Musical" and "Spider-Man" 1-3 aside, digits have lost their title cachet, and titles have become indistinguishable brand names.

    Top Stories - Google News 2009

  • Selling your work to a publisher that no one will read, making no money on the deal (less than no money really when you consider opportunity costs), and getting the opposite of cachet from the whole thing is no way to begin a career.

    GUEST POST: Jennifer Brissett Weighs in on the Writer Pay Rate Flap 2009

  • Paella was a peasant´s and fisherman´s stew of leftovers after market and took on a certain cachet as did bouillabasse in Marseilles and Cioppino in San Francisco but most of these concoctions are mediocre at best unless you identify public places with extraordinary talent in the kitchen.

    Page 2 2009

  • Paella was a peasant´s and fisherman´s stew of leftovers after market and took on a certain cachet as did bouillabasse in Marseilles and Cioppino in San Francisco but most of these concoctions are mediocre at best unless you identify public places with extraordinary talent in the kitchen.

    Page 2 2009

  • My last bike was a BMW, always a nice thing to mention in Japan as the brand cachet is strong, despite the rather more staid UK image, perhaps related to the relative rarity of the bike in Japan.

    Ideal first kiss locations in Japan 2008

  • Social Media makes sense for wine marketing because the cachet is in the smallness.

    New Video from Bedell Cellars 2008

  • Many of them had military experience, and this lent a certain cachet to their names: Colonels Townsend Whelen and Charles Askins, Major George C. Nonte, Captain Phil Sharpe.

    Are good gun writers a dying breed? 2006

  • Unlike in pop music, where early adopters of new technologies can gain long-term cachet by exploiting new sounds and techniques to maximum effect, Photoshop's saving grace has been in the myriad ways its many tacky filters could be adjusted or layered to produce unique and subtle looks, and the best designers distinguished themselves with work that did not speak loudly of Chrome or Craquelure.

    Archive 2006-09-01 Jeremiah McNichols 2006

  • Perhaps "universal cachet" is a new metaphor for "fat black cat with breath that could peel the bark off a redwood," because I've definitely got one of those, and she definitely demands respect.

    it's too early for this crap 2004

  • Unlike in pop music, where early adopters of new technologies can gain long-term cachet by exploiting new sounds and techniques to maximum effect, Photoshop's saving grace has been in the myriad ways its many tacky filters could be adjusted or layered to produce unique and subtle looks, and the best designers distinguished themselves with work that did not speak loudly of Chrome or Craquelure.

    Eyespot Now Officially An Eyesore Jeremiah McNichols 2006

Comments

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  • In stamp collecting, a design on an envelope that commemorates a particular event. Cachets appear on modern first-day covers, first-flight covers and special-event covers.

    August 25, 2008

  • See disambiguation note at cache.

    October 12, 2008

  • a public university, while perhaps not carrying quite the cachet as a private school,...

    May 26, 2010