cater
pronunciation
How to pronounce cater in British English:
UK [ˈkeɪtə(r)]
How to pronounce cater in American English:
US [ˈkeɪtər]
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- Verb:
- provide what is desired or needed, especially support, food or sustenance
- supply food ready to eat; for parties and banquets
Word Origin
- cater
- cater: [16] Cater is related to French acheter ‘buy’, and originally meant ‘buy provisions’. It comes ultimately from Vulgar Latin *accaptāre, a compound verb formed from the Latin prefix ad- ‘to’ and the verb captāre ‘try to seize’ (source of English catch and chase). This provided the basis for the Anglo-Norman agent noun acatour ‘buyer, purveyor’, which gave English the now obsolete acater.Losing its a-, this became cater, which until the early 17th century was the word for what we would now call a ‘caterer’. At around the same time cater began to be used as a verb; the first known example of this is in Shakespeare’s As You Like It II, iii: ‘He that doth the ravens feed, yea providently caters for the sparrow’.=> capture, catch, chase
- cater (v.)
- "provide food for," c. 1600, from Middle English catour (n.) "buyer of provisions" (c. 1400; late 13c. as a surname), a shortening of Anglo-French achatour "buyer" (Old North French acatour, Old French achatour, 13c., Modern French acheteur), from Old French achater "to buy," originally "to buy provisions," perhaps from Vulgar Latin *accaptare, from Latin ad- "to" + captare "to take, hold," frequentative of capere "to take" (see capable). Or else from Vulgar Latin *accapitare "to add to one's capital," with second element from verbal stem of Latin caput (genitive capitis); see capital (adj.). Figuratively from 1650s. Related: Catered; catering.
Example
- 1. Retailers also have to cater for very different tastes around the country .
- 2. And business must work out how to cater responsibly to an individual 's desires .
- 3. However , retailers are not the only businesses seeking to cater for chinese people overseas .
- 4. Before publication , I was told I would need to make tweaks to cater for differing transatlantic tastes .
- 5. When companies try to cater for older customers , they do not always get it right .