cater
English
Etymology 1
From Middle English catour (“acater, provisioner”), aphetic form of acatour (“acater”), from Old French achater (“to buy, to purchase”). Equivalent to cate + -er.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈkeɪtə/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈkeɪdɚ/, /ˈkeɪtɚ/, [ˈkʰeɪ̯ɾɚ]
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -eɪtə(r)
Verb
cater (third-person singular simple present caters, present participle catering, simple past and past participle catered)
- To provide, particularly:
- (transitive, intransitive) To provide with food, especially for a special occasion as a professional service.
- a. 1616, William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act II, Sc. iii, ll. 45 ff.:
- He that doth the Rauens feede,
Yea prouidently caters for the Sparrow.
- He that doth the Rauens feede,
- I catered for her bat mitzvah.
- His company catered our wedding.
- a. 1616, William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act II, Sc. iii, ll. 45 ff.:
- (intransitive, figuratively, with 'to') To provide anything required or desired, often (derogatory) to pander.
- 1840, William Makepeace Thackeray, The Paris Sketch Book, Vol. II, p. 16:
- Art... was... catering to the national taste and vanity.
- I always wanted someone to cater to my every whim.
- 1840, William Makepeace Thackeray, The Paris Sketch Book, Vol. II, p. 16:
- (transitive, intransitive) To provide with food, especially for a special occasion as a professional service.
Derived terms
Translations
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Noun
cater (plural caters)
- (obsolete) Synonym of acater: an officer who purchased cates (food supplies) for the steward of a large household or estate.
- (obsolete) Synonym of caterer: any provider of food.
- c. 1430, John Lydgate translating Giovanni Boccaccio as The Fall of Princes, Bk. VII, Ch. x, l. 161:
- (figuratively, obsolete) Synonym of purveyor: any provider of anything.
Etymology 2
Probably ultimately from French quatre (“four”), possibly via cater (“change-ringing”), although Liberman argues for a derivation from a North Germanic prefix meaning "crooked, angled, clumsy" from which he also derives cater-cousin and, via Norse, Old Irish cittach (“left-handed, awkward”). He finds this more likely than extension of the dice and change-ringing term cater as an adverb, given the likely cognates in other Germanic languages. Caterpillar and caterwaul are unrelated, being derived from cognates to cat, but may have influenced the pronunciation of Liberman's proposed earlier *cate- or undergone similar sound changes.
Verb
cater (third-person singular simple present caters, present participle catering, simple past and past participle catered)
- (Britain dialectal) To place, set, move, or cut diagonally or rhomboidally.
- 1577, Barnaby Googe transl. Conrad Heresbach as Foure Bookes of Husbandry, Bk. II, fol. 69v:
- The trees are set checkerwise, and so catred [Latin: partim in quincuncem directis], as looke which way ye wyl, they lye leuel.
- 1873, Silverland, p. 129:
- ‘Cater’ across the rails ever so cleverly, you cannot escape jolt and jar.
- 1577, Barnaby Googe transl. Conrad Heresbach as Foure Bookes of Husbandry, Bk. II, fol. 69v:
Adverb
cater (not comparable)
- (Britain dialectal, US) Diagonally.
- 1881, Sebastian Evans, Leicestershire Words, Phrases, and Proverbs, s.v. "Cater and Cater-cornered":
- Cater and Cater-cornered, diagonal; diagonally. To ‘cut cater’ in the case of velvet, cloth, etc., is... ‘cut on the cross’. Cater-snozzle, to make an angle; to ‘mitre’.
- 1881, Sebastian Evans, Leicestershire Words, Phrases, and Proverbs, s.v. "Cater and Cater-cornered":
Derived terms
- cater-corner, catercross, cater-snozzle, caterways, caterwise, cut cater
Noun
cater (plural caters)
- (rare, obsolete) Four.
- (card games, dice games, obsolete) The four of cards or dice.
- 1519, William Horman, Vulgaria, fol. 280v:
- Cater is a very good caste.
- 1519, William Horman, Vulgaria, fol. 280v:
- (music) A method of ringing nine bells in four pairs with a ninth tenor bell.
- 1872, Henry Thomas Ellacombe, The Bells of Church, p. 29:
- The very terms of the art are enough to frighten an amateur. Hunting, dodging... caters, cinques, etc.
- 1878, George Grove, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians, s.v. "Cater":
- Cater... The name given by change ringers to changes of nine bells. The word should probably be written quaters, as it is meant to denote the fact that four couples of bells change their places in the order of ringing.
- 1872, Henry Thomas Ellacombe, The Bells of Church, p. 29:
Derived terms
- cater-point, cater-trey
Translations
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References
- “† 'cater, n¹.”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1889. - “cater, n²., adv., v¹., and v².”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1889. - “cater” in Merriam–Webster Online Dictionary.
- cater in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- "Kitty-corner" in Anatoly Liberman's Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008, →ISBN, pp. 133–135.
Middle Dutch
Inflection
This noun needs an inflection-table template.