cater

See also: Cater and catèr

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English catour (“acater, provisioner”), aphetic form of acatour (“acater”), from Old French acater (“to buy, to purchase”). Equivalent to cate +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkeɪtə/
• IPA^(key): /ˈkeɪtɚ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪtə(ɹ)

Verb

cater (third-person singular simple present caters, present participle catering, simple past and past participle catered)

1. To provide, particularly:
   1. (transitive, intransitive) To provide with food, especially for a special occasion as a professional service.
      • a. 1616, William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 3, ll. 45 ff.:

        He that doth the Rauens feede,
        Yea prouidently caters for the Sparrow.

      I catered for her bat mitzvah.

      His company catered our wedding.

   2. (intransitive, figurative, with 'to') To provide anything required or desired, often (derogatory) to pander.

      I always wanted someone to cater to my every whim.

Derived terms

• caterer

Translations

to provide food for a special occasion as a professional service

• Finnish: järjestää ruokatarjoilu
• French: faire traiteur
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: обслу́живать (ru) (obslúživatʹ), обеспе́чивать (ru) (obespéčivatʹ)
• Spanish: proveer comida para

provide anything required or desired — see also pander

• Bulgarian: угаждам (bg) (ugaždam)
• Finnish: ottaa huomioon (fi)
• French: pourvoir (fr), satisfaire (fr)
• Occitan: provesir (oc), dotar (oc), subvenir (oc), aprovesir (oc)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: обслу́живать (ru) (obslúživatʹ), угожда́ть (ru) (ugoždátʹ), потво́рствовать (ru) (potvórstvovatʹ)
• Spanish: atender (es)

Noun

cater (plural caters)

1. (obsolete) Synonym of acater: an officer who purchased cates (food supplies) for the steward of a large household or estate.
   • c. 1400, Gamelyn, ll. 321 ff.:

     I am oure Catour and bere oure Alther purse.

   • 1512, Account Book of the Hospital of St. John, Canterbury (1510–1556):

     Rec. for iij calvys off þe cater of Crystis Cherche.

2. (obsolete) Synonym of caterer: any provider of food.
   • c. 1430, John Lydgate translating Giovanni Boccaccio, The Fall of Princes‎^[1], Bk. VII, Ch. x, l. 161:

     Of his diete catour was scarsite...

3. (figurative, obsolete) Synonym of purveyor: any provider of anything.

Alternative forms

• catour, cator, kater, chator (obsolete)

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)

1. (UK dialect) To place, set, move, or cut diagonally or rhomboidally.
   • 1577, Barnaby Googe transl. Conrad Heresbach, 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.

Adverb

cater (not comparable)

2. (UK dialect, 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’.

Derived terms

• cater-corner, catercross, cater-snozzle, caterways, caterwise, cut cater

Etymology 3

From French quatre (“four”). Doublet of cuatro.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkeɪtə/, /ˈkatə/
• IPA^(key): /ˈkeɪtəɹ/

Noun

cater (plural caters)

1. (rare, obsolete) Four.
2. (card games, dice games, obsolete) The four of cards or dice.
   • 1519, William Horman, Vulgaria, fol. 280v:

     Cater is a very good caste.

3. (music) A method of ringing nine bells in four pairs with a ninth tenor bell.
   • 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.

Alternative forms

• catre, quatre

Derived terms

• cater-point, cater-trey

Related terms

• ace, deuce, trey, cinque, sice

Translations

four of cards or dice

• Japanese: ケイト (keito)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Polish: kwadr m, kwater (pl) m

References

• “† ’cater, n¹.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1889.
• “cater, n²., adv., v¹., and v².”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1889.
• “cater”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “cater”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• "Kitty-corner" in Anatoly Liberman's Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008, →ISBN, pp. 133–135.

Anagrams

• Carte, Trace, acter, caret, carte, crate, creat, react, recta, reäct, trace

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Ladin

Ladin cardinal numbers

<  3	4	5  >
Cardinal : cater     Ordinal : cuart

Etymology

From Latin quattuor.

Adjective

cater

1. four

Noun

cater m (uncountable)

1. four

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Middle Dutch

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

cāter m

1. tomcat

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Descendants

• Dutch: kater
• Limburgish: kater

Further reading

• “cater”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E., Verdam, J. (1885–1929) “cater (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN, page I