The first time I came across the word cadence was while reading a novel when I was in middle school. The story was about a third-string quarterback who is suddenly thrust into a starting position due to a combination of injuries and suspensions. Although his physical abilities are limited, the third-stringer is a savvy operator and uses his smarts to lead the team to an improbable victory.
One of his ideas was to trick the opponent into thinking the play was about to start by yelling complicated signals to his team. The quarterback worried, however, that his own teammates might be fooled and commit the same mistakes he wanted the opponent to make. This was because his teammates might not be used to his cadence (definition - a modulation or inflection of the voice) and the lack of familiarity could throw them off during the game.
The next time I heard cadence was at my new job. I was told on different occasions to schedule meetings at my preferred cadence or even at a cadence that worked for me – once a week, every other Thursday, monthly, or whatever. I was confused during these interactions because my understanding of cadence didn’t align with how my new colleagues were using the word. The basic difference was that I thought of cadence as a word that related to the voice and its various inflections while my new colleagues were essentially using the word interchangeably with pattern or rhythm. This bothered me for a little while, perhaps bothered me in the same way it might bother me to see someone wearing socks on their hands, but eventually it just didn’t matter to me anymore.
I suppose what I’m really talking about here is the way language evolves over time. It isn’t about whether the word is right or wrong. I think people spend far too much time worrying about the right meaning or definition of a word. The important thing isn't the definition, it's whether other people know what the hell you are talking about. My colleagues might not have met a dictionary standard when they used cadence instead of rhythm but the logic behind how they used the word incorrectly wasn’t very hard to decipher and therefore not a real problem.
It’s fairly straightforward for me to imagine a future where everyone uses cadence in the context of rhythm. A dictionary’s role is to catalog how words are being used and at some point it will need to adjust its entry for cadence rather than demand people stop using a word in the new way it's commonly being used. I’m not sure when this kind of thing officially happens – I suppose it depends on, er… the cadence… of the editing, proofreading, and publishing schedules.
