## Meanings
1. To provide what someone wants or needs, especially a particular group.
2. To provide food and drink for an event.
3. A person or company that provides food for events.

## Examples
- This hotel caters to families with young children.
- A local company catered for the wedding.
- The cater arrived early to set up the buffet.

## Derived Forms
- cater-point
- cater-trey
- cater-waiter
- caterer
- cateress
- catery
- self-catered
- self-catering

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: quatre

## Etymology
Probably ultimately from French quatre (“four”), possibly via cater (“change-ringing”), although Liberman argues for a derivation from a North Germanic prefix meaning "crooked, angled, clumsy" from which he also derives cater-cousin and, via Norse, Old Irish cittach (“left-handed, awkward”). He finds this more likely than extension of the dice and change-ringing term cater as an adverb, given the likely cognates in other Germanic languages. Caterpillar and caterwaul are unrelated, being derived from cognates to cat, but may have influenced the pronunciation of Liberman's proposed earlier *cate…

## AI Etymology
Cater is probably ultimately from French quatre (“four”), possibly via cater (“change-ringing”), although Liberman argues for a derivation from a North Germanic prefix meaning "crooked, angled, clumsy" from which he also derives cater-cousin and, via Norse, Old Irish cittach (“left-handed, awkward”). He finds this more likely than extension of the dice and change-ringing term cater as an adverb, given the likely cognates in other Germanic languages. Caterpillar and caterwaul are unrelated, being derived from cognates to cat, but may have influenced the pronunciation of Liberman's proposed earlier *cate… Important recorded forms include quatre (French). Current senses include to provide what someone wants or needs, especially a particular group, to provide food and drink for an event, and a person or company that provides food for events. The wider family includes derived forms such as cater-point, cater-trey, cater-waiter, caterer, and cateress.

## Topics
- Food & Drink
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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