Catered

How to spell catered

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce catered

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does catered mean?

1. verbProvided food and drink for an event or gathering, usually as a paid service.
2. verbProvided what was wanted or needed by a particular group, often followed by 'to' or 'for'.

Catered in a sentence

• The hotel catered the wedding reception for two hundred guests.

• The new menu catered to vegetarians and people with allergies.

• A local firm catered the office party with a hot buffet.

• The resort catered for families with young children.

Where does catered come from?

Language of origin: French

This is the past tense of the verb 'cater', which traces back to the Old French word 'acatour', meaning a buyer of provisions, and the related verb 'acater', meaning to buy or to purchase. Those forms grew from the Latin 'accaptare', a combination of 'ad-' (meaning toward) and 'captare' (meaning to grasp or seize at), so the underlying idea was that of grabbing supplies for a household. In early English a 'cater' or 'catour' was the household officer responsible for purchasing food, and over time the noun was reshaped into the verb we use today. By the seventeenth century 'cater' had come to mean providing food and provisions for others, and from there it broadened to mean attending to any kind of need or taste. The single 't' and single 'r' in the spelling reflect the short, even pronunciation, so there is no doubling when you add the '-ed' ending.

How the word is built

• cater (to provide food/provisions)
• -ed (past tense suffix)