Caters

How to spell caters

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce caters

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does caters mean?

1. verbProvides food and drink for an event or group, especially as a business.
2. verbProvides what is needed or wanted by a particular group or taste.

Caters in a sentence

• The firm caters for corporate lunches and large weddings.

• The new gym caters to busy parents with early morning classes.

• A local bakery caters for every birthday party on our street.

• This magazine caters for readers who enjoy classic cars.

Where does caters come from?

Language of origin: French

This word traces back to the Latin verb capere, meaning 'to take' or 'to seize', which gave rise to the frequentative captare, 'to try to grab' or 'to acquire'. By way of Old French and Anglo-Norman, this produced acatour, the title of an official whose job was to buy provisions for a large household. English shortened acatour to 'catour' and then 'cater', and by the late 1500s the noun had spawned the verb meaning 'to buy or provide food'. From there the sense broadened to providing for needs or tastes of any kind, as in catering to an audience. The same capere root sits inside everyday relatives such as 'capture' and 'capable', and the steady -ter- ending is the part worth fixing in memory, since the word is simply 'cater' plus a plain -s.

How the word is built

• cater (from Anglo-Norman acatour: buyer of provisions)
• -s (third person singular)