Other forms: catering, caters, catered
To cater is to supply food, or to provide what is needed. Cater a wedding, catering company, cater for all tastes.
The food sense is the literal one: caterers supply and serve at events. The figurative sense takes for in British English and to in American — cater for every taste, cater to demand — and cater to carries a faint suggestion of indulging. Note caterer, catering; and that the word comes from an old term for a household's buyer of provisions, which is a job that no longer has a name.
1verbcaterTo supply food for an event.
“A local company is catering the wedding, with a buffet for all the guests.”
2verbprovideTo provide what somebody needs or wants.
“The hotel caters for families, with a kids' club and a paddling pool.”
cater is a providing.
Middle English catour meant a buyer of provisions, a shortened form of acatour, from Old French acheter, to buy. The verb was made from the job title.
Proto-Indo-European
*kap-
Old French
acheter — to buy, to purchase
Middle English
catour — acater, provisioner
English, today
cater
Built from
From Middle English catour (“acater, provisioner”), aphetic form of acatour (“acater”), from Old French acheter (“to buy, to purchase”). Equivalent to cate + -er.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA