Caters

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To serve food and drinks for an event while fulfilling specific client preferences and needs in a tailored manner
2. To supply food and services tailored to the specific needs of a client or event while ensuring satisfaction is achieved through personalized attention
3. To supply meals and related services to occasions, addressing the particular requirements of attendees

Etymology: Long before anyone catered a wedding, the root of this verb was a buyer of provisions. Middle English "catour" meant a provisioner, the official who bought food for a household, college or religious house, and it came from Old French "acater", "to buy". The verb later developed from that job title, so a caterer was first a purchaser before becoming someone who prepared and served the meal. The deeper origin is disputed. One theory links it to French "quatre", "four", through the dice and change-ringing sense of "cater", which denoted a four. The etymologist Anatoly Liberman instead proposes a North Germanic prefix meaning "crooked, angled, clumsy", a view he considers more likely given Germanic cognates. Either way, the word is not related to "caterpillar" or "caterwaul", despite their similar look, since those derive from "cat".

Synonyms: provides, supplies, serves