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Origin and history of cater

cater(v.)

c. 1600, "provide food for," 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," which is perhaps from Vulgar Latin *accaptare, from Latin ad- "to" (see ad-) + captare "to take, hold," frequentative of capere "to take" (from PIE root *kap- "to grasp").

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.). Related: Catered; catering. Figuratively, "act as a purveyor," from 1650s.

Likely formed from the verb in English were caterie "department of a house that procured and managed meat, fish, etc." (mid-15c.); cates (n.) "foodstuffs, provisions" (late 15c.).

It is the faire acceptance, Sir, creates

The entertaynment perfect: not the cates.

[Ben Jonson, "Inviting a Friend to Supper"]

also from c. 1600

Entries linking to cater

capital(adj.)

early 13c., "of or pertaining to the head," from Old French capital, from Latin capitalis "of the head," hence "capital, chief, first," from caput (genitive capitis) "head" (from PIE root *kaput- "head"). The meaning "main, principal, chief, dominant, first in importance" is from early 15c. in English. The modern informal sense of "excellent, first-rate" is by 1754 (as an exclamation of approval, OED's first example is 1875), perhaps from earlier use of the word in reference to ships, "first-rate, powerful enough to be in the line of battle," attested from 1650s, fallen into disuse after 1918. Related: Capitally.

A capital letter "upper-case latter," of larger face and differing more or less in form (late 14c.) is so called because it stands at the "head" of a sentence or word. Capital gain is recorded from 1921. Capital goods is recorded from 1899.

A capital crime or offense (1520s) is one that involves the penalty of death and thus affects the life or "head" (capital had a sense of "deadly, mortal" from late 14c. in English, as it did earlier in Latin). The felt connection between "head" and "life, mortality" also existed in Old English: as in heafodgilt "deadly sin, capital offense," heafdes þolian "to forfeit life." Capital punishment was in Blackstone (1765) and classical Latin capitis poena.

caterer(n.)

"provider of food or provisions," mid-15c., earlier simply cater (see cater (v.)). With redundant -er (compare poulterer, sorcerer, upholsterer).