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cater

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: Cater and catèr

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
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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

Verb

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

  1. To provide, particularly:
    • a. 1635, Thomas Randolph, Poems, On the Inestimable Content He Injoyes, page 4:
      Noe widdowes curse caters a dish of mine.
    1. (ambitransitive) To provide with food, especially for a special occasion as a professional service.
      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.
      • 1840, William Makepeace Thackeray, The Paris Sketch Book, volume 2, page 16:
        Art... was... catering to the national taste and vanity.
      • 2016 July 14, Mark Hay, “Datagasm”, in Aeon:
        And on the other side of the enter key, they would almost invariably find forums collectively celebrating individuals’ secret desires, or enterprising smut-mongers catering directly to them.
    • 2020, Pamela Dickey Young, Heather Shipley, “Emerging-Adult Opinions on Religion and Sexuality”, in Identities Under Construction: Religion, Gender, and Sexuality among Youth in Canada, McGill-Queen’s University Press, →ISBN, pages 59–60:
      Priya’s parents’ Hinduism seemed to present conflicting views of sex: […] What people don’t know about the Kama Sutra is that it’s actually a text that … very heavily caters to Madonna/whore complexes. That it’s actually quite misogynistic. And that it’s actually catered more for male pleasure and … males always will have the upper hand according to the Kama Sutra.
    1. (intransitive, figurative, with 'for') To tailor something to an intended audience.
      The business caters for young professionals.
      • 1898, The Hotel/Motor Hotel Monthly, volume 6, page 27:
        A gents' toilet room might be found in a house that caters for the cheaper class of theatrical patronage, where the slangy language of the "goin' to the mat this aft?" style prevails. A gents toilet room is not found in the Southern Hotel. It either "men's" or "gentlemen's".
      • 1998, Sherry Saggers, Dennis Gray, Dealing with Alcohol: Indigenous Usage in Australia, New Zealand and Canada, page 108:
        The former were catered for both by liquor stores and, to a lesser extent, by the bottle shops of hotels.
    • 2022 February 10, Zhuang Pinghui, “Omicron cases crash in ‘vital window’ for China city Baise’s outbreak battle”, in South China Morning Post‎, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 10 February 2022, Science‎:
      Huludao’s Xingcheng county and two districts have ordered entertainment venues such as theatres and cinemas to close, while restaurants are not to offer banqueting services or cater for large gatherings.
Derived terms
Translations

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.
  2. (obsolete) Synonym of caterer: any provider of food.
  3. (figurative, obsolete) Synonym of purveyor: any provider of anything.
    • 1590, Robert Greene, Greenes Mourning Garment, page 28:
      The eye is loues Cator.
Alternative forms

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.
    • 1873, Silverland, page 129:
      ‘Cater’ across the rails ever so cleverly, you cannot escape jolt and jar.

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

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.
    • 1872, Henry Thomas Ellacombe, The Bells of Church, page 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.
Alternative forms
Coordinate terms
Derived terms
  • cater-point, cater-trey
Translations

References

Anagrams

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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

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

More information singular, plural ...

Descendants

  • Dutch: kater
  • Limburgish: kater

Further reading

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