cater

Meanings

Verb

• To provide, particularly:
• To place, set, move, or cut diagonally or rhomboidally.

Noun

• Synonym of acater: an officer who purchased cates (food supplies) for the steward of a large household or estate.
• Synonym of caterer: any provider of food.
• Synonym of purveyor: any provider of anything.
• Four.
• The four of cards or dice.
• A method of ringing nine bells in four pairs with a ninth tenor bell.

Adverb

• Diagonally.

Origin

• From Middle English catour ("acater, provisioner"), aphetic form of acatour, from Old French acater ("to buy, to purchase"). Equivalent to cate + --er.
• Probably ultimately from French quatre ("four"), possibly via cater, 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. 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.
• From French quatre ("four"). cuatro.