| 词组 | cater |
| 释义 | cater In current American usage, the predominant preposition after cater is to: • ... stores that cater more to lower- and middle-income customers —Isadore Barmash, TV. Y. Times, 12 Mar. 1980 • So, our government, always on the alert to cater to the peace of mind of its citizens ... —Goodman Ace, Saturday Rev., 6 Mar. 1971 • Both were in any case catering to a great appetite for self-expression —Marya Mannes, The Reporter, 28 Apr. 1953 In British usage the predominant preposition is for: • ... in this book he caters for professionals and amateurs —Russell Meiggs, Times Literary Supp., 19 Nov. 1982 • The pulps catered for a large audience, literate but not literary —Julian Symons, Bloody Murder, 1985 • Australia's large public hospitals are operating to capacity catering for road accident victims —James E. Breheny, The Age (Melbourne), 14 Apr. 1975 To is also found in British English, perhaps a bit more often than for is found in American: • ... when most British companies had not even thought seriously about catering to French tastes — The Economist, 16 Mar. 1974 • Showmen is devoid of politics. They hain't got any principles! They know how to cater for the public — Artemus Ward, "Interview with President Lincoln," 1861, in The Mirth of a Nation, ed. Walter Blair & Raven I. McDavid, Jr., 1983 • ... the plutocratic St. Moritzers for whom our popular dramatists cater —T. S. Eliot, "A Dialogue on Dramatic Poetry" (1928), in Selected Essays, 1932 How this largely divergent practice came about is uncertain. We do know from the OED that for came first; it was used by Shakespeare: • ... providently caters for the sparrow —As You Like It, 1600 To is first attested in 1840 in the writing of Thackeray: • Catering to the national taste and vanity —The Paris Sketch Book Since the to originally turned up in the figurative use of cater, Murray suggests it may have been influenced by the use of to with the figurative sense of pander Whatever the cause, most writers of British English follow Shakespeare, and most Americans follow Thackeray. |
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