Cather

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A surname borne by the early twentieth-century American novelist famous for prairie fiction such as O Pioneers and My Antonia
2. A family name, best known through the American author of frontier novels set on the Great Plains in the early 1900s
3. A proper name for a person, most often linked to the American writer whose prairie novels explored pioneer life

Etymology: "Cather" is best known as a surname, most famously that of the American novelist Willa Cather, whose best-known books include "My Ántonia" and "Death Comes for the Archbishop." As a surname, it is a family name whose origin is hard to pin down with confidence, so the reliable story is the name's bearers rather than its roots. Read as a common noun, the form most likely comes from the verb "catch" with the agent ending "-er," so it would mean one who catches. That reading is a plain formation rather than a dramatic story, and I cannot confirm an earlier history for it beyond that.