Where does “cater” come from?
Cater comes from French quatre, from Old French quatre, from Latin quattuor meaning four, influenced by Latin caput meaning head and the prefix ad-.
cater (English): To provide, "particularly:"; Synonym of acater:...
Definitions
- To provide, "particularly:"; Synonym of acater:...
Ancestry of “cater”, step by step
cater traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via Middle English catour
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | catour | acater, provisioner |
| 2 | Middle English | acatour | acater |
| 3 | Old French | acheter | to purchase; buy |
| 4 | Vulgar Latin | accaptare | — |
| 5 | Latin | acceptō | to take, receive, accept (regularly) |
| 6 | Latin | accipiō | to receive, accept, take |
| 7 | Latin | ad- | to; usually prefixed to verbs, in which cases it... |
| 8 | Latin | īn- | un-, non-, not |
| 9 | Latin | în | in, at, on, upon, from (space) |
| 10 | Latin | en | lookǃ beholdǃ; reallyǃ?; come onǃ |
| 11 | Proto-Italic | en | in |
| 12 | Proto-Indo-European | h₁én | in |
via French quatre
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | French | quatre | four |
| 2 | Old French | quatre | four |
| 3 | Latin | quattŭor | four; 4 |
| 4 | Portuguese | quarto | ordinal form of quatro; fourth; quarter; fourth;... |
| 5 | Old Portuguese | quarto | quarter |
| 6 | Latin | quārtus | fourth |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | kʷeturtos | — |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | kʷetwóres | four |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | kʷe- | and |