different between acater vs cater

English

Noun

acater (plural acaters)

1. (obsolete) caterer

Anagrams

• caetra, carate, cerata, ectara

Norman

Alternative forms

• acataer (continental Normandy)
• acataïr (Guernsey)

Etymology

From Old Northern French acater (compare Old French achater), from Vulgar Latin *accapt?re, from Latin ad + capt?re, present active infinitive of capt? (“I strive to seize, catch or grasp at”).

Pronunciation

Verb

acater

1. (Jersey) to buy

   Antonym: vendre

Derived terms

• acateux (“buyer”)

Related terms

• acat (“purchase”)

Old French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [aka?te?r]

Verb

acater

1. (Old Northern French) Alternative form of acheter

Conjugation

This verb conjugates as a first-group verb ending in -er. The forms that would normally end in *-ts, *-tt are modified to z, t. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.

Descendants

• Norman: acataer, acataïr
• English: cater

Picard

Etymology

From Old French acater, northern variant of Old French achater, from Vulgar Latin *accapt?re, from Latin ad + capt?, capt?re.

Verb

acater

1. to buy

   Ej vo-t in vile por acater queuques pétiotés coses à minger

   I'm going in town to buy a few things to eat

Conjugation

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

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?ke?t?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?ke?d?/, /?ke?t?/, [?k?e????]
• Rhymes: -e?t?(r)

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, p. 4:

     Noe widdowes curse caters a dish of mine.

   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 II, Sc. iii, 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, figuratively, with 'to') To provide anything required or desired, often (derogatory) to pander.
      • 1840, William Makepeace Thackeray, The Paris Sketch Book, Vol. II, p. 16:

        Art... was... catering to the national taste and vanity.

      I always wanted someone to cater to my every whim.

Derived terms

• caterer

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.
   • 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 as The Fall of Princes, Bk. VII, Ch. x, l. 161:

     Of his diete catour was scarsite...

3. (figuratively, obsolete) Synonym of purveyor: any provider of anything.
   • 1590, Robert Greene, Greenes Mourning Garment, p. 28:

     The eye is loues Cator.

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. (Britain dialect) To place, set, move, or cut diagonally or rhomboidally.
   • 1577, Barnaby Googe transl. Conrad Heresbach as 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, p. 129:

     ‘Cater’ across the rails ever so cleverly, you cannot escape jolt and jar.

Adverb

cater (not comparable)

1. (Britain 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

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?ke?t?/, /?kat?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?ke?t??/

Noun

cater (plural caters)

1. (rare, obsolete) Four.
   • 1553, Thomas Wilson, The Arte of Rhetorique..., p. 86:

     The auditour... cometh in with sise sould, and cater denere, for vi.s. and iiii.d.

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, p. 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

• catre, quatre

Derived terms

• cater-point, cater-trey

Related terms

• ace, deuce, trey, cinque, sice

Translations

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, (Please provide a date or year).
• cater in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• "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

Ladin

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

c?ter 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