cater

Etymology

The verb was formed in English from an obsolete noun cater, a buyer of provisions,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} which is from Middle English catour, also kater,^[7][3] an aphetic form of acatour.^[3][4][8][9] That is Anglo-Norman acatour (“buyer, purchaser”),^[4][8][10] the Anglo-Norman and Old Northern French form beside Old French achatour, modern acheteur,^[2][11][12] from achater (“to buy”), in Anglo-Norman also acater,^[2][13][14] modern acheter.^[4][5] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from the later 12th century, also as a surname.^[10] Most dictionaries derive the French verb from Vulgar Latin *accaptō,^{[14][13][4][5][15]} formed from ad- (“to”) and captō (“to try to seize”), the frequentative of capiō (“to take”);^[13][2][5] Etymonline calls this derivation only probable.^[2] Klein rejects it on phonetic grounds, since Old French also had acheder and Old Spanish acabdar, and derives it instead from Vulgar Latin *accapitō (“to add to one's capital”), from caput (“head”);^[11] Etymonline gives this as the alternative.^[2] The Latin verb is also the source of catch and chase.^[5][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

To provide food: the verb is first recorded in Shakespeare's As You Like It (1600 in Barnhart; before 1616 in the OED), in the line "He that doth the ravens feed, yea providently caters for the sparrow".^[13][3][5] Merriam-Webster dates its first known use to 1580,^[8] and the Shorter Oxford to the late 16th century.^[16]

Semantic evolution

Before the verb, cater was a noun: in Middle English the catour was a buyer of provisions, especially the officer who bought them for a lord's household, from about 1400 (in the Tale of Gamelyn) to 1629,^[3][7] and Etymonline finds it as a surname from the late 13th century.^[2] The noun was replaced before 1700 by the longer caterer,^[3] formed like fruiterer and poulterer.^[17] The verb first meant to buy or provide food; a transitive use followed before 1635.^[3][16] From the mid-17th century it was also used figuratively, of providing whatever is wanted,^[3][2][16] while from 1840, in Thackeray, with to, on the model of pander to, of indulging a taste or desire;^[3] the Shorter Oxford dates the sense "pander to evil inclinations" to the mid-19th century.^[16] Johnson (1755) still entered the noun cater, a provider or collector of provisions.^[18]

Timeline

• late 13th century – catour as a surname.^[2]
• c. 1400 – noun catour, a buyer of provisions (obsolete by 1629).^[3][7]
• 1580 – first known use of the verb according to Merriam-Webster.^[8]
• 1600 – to provide food, in Shakespeare's As You Like It.^[13][3]
• before 1635 – transitive, to provide (food).^[3]
• before 1640 – figurative, to provide what is needed or wanted.^[3]
• 1760 – absolute, to buy or provide food.^[3]
• 1840 – cater to, to pander to.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To provide food and drink for a party or other event, especially as a business; in British use cater for, in North American use also transitive: Her firm catered the wedding.^[19][6][8]
2. To supply what is needed or wanted; usually with for or to: The library caters for readers of all ages.^[19][8][6]
3. cater to: to indulge or pander to a taste, wish or appetite: shows that cater to a love of scandal.^[8][3][16]

Noun

1. (obsolete, c. 1400–1629) A buyer of provisions, especially for a large household; a caterer.^[3][8][16]

Word family

• caterer
• self-catering

Related words

• catch
• chase
• cater-corner

Usage notes

A separate word cater, borrowed from French quatre (“four”), from Latin quattuor, meant the four at dice or cards from the 16th century,^[3][11][8] and in change-ringing names changes on nine bells.^[3][16] From it, or directly from the French, comes the dialect verb cater, to place or move diagonally, recorded from 1577,^[3][8][16] which the English Dialect Dictionary records from Yorkshire to Kent and Sussex;^[20] it survives in cater-corner.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
6. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
13. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
14. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
15. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
16. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
17. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
18. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
19. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
20. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)