cater-cousin

English

WOTD – 19 February 2024

Etymology

Apparently from cater +‎ cousin; further etymology uncertain. The following derivations of the first element cater have been suggested:

• Stephen Skinner (1623–1667) proposed a derivation from French quatre (“four”), used in place of quatrième (“fourth”) to refer to a fourth cousin. Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) agreed, saying that the term alluded to the “ridiculousness of calling cousin or relation to so remote a degree”. The Oxford English Dictionary (“OED”) states that this “seems very unlikely”.
• Instead, the OED suggests that the first element is from cater (“(obsolete) provider of food”, noun) or cater (“to provide with food”, verb), with the term originally referring to people being considered as related because they were catered for or boarded together: compare companion (literally “bread-sharer”), foster father (literally “food-father”), etc.
• Anatoly Liberman (born 1937) doubts both of the above, preferring a derivation from a lost North Germanic word meaning “angled; crooked; clumsy”: compare Danish kejte (“left hand”), kejtet (“awkward, clumsy”), English cater-corner (“of or pertaining to something at a diagonal to another; (Britain dialectal, obsolete) uneven, not square, as mislaid stones or people with a limping gait”), and Swedish kaitu (“left hand”). The OED says an early Scandinavian origin “seems less convincing”.

The modern use of the term was popularized by the English playwright William Shakespeare (1564–1616) in his play The Merchant of Venice (written c. 1596–1598; published 1600): see the quotation.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkeɪtəˌkʌz(ə)n/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkeɪtəɹˌkʌz(ə)n/, [-ɾəɹ-]

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ca‧ter-cou‧sin

Noun

cater-cousin (plural cater-cousins)

1. (archaic) A person who, while not being a blood relation, is regarded as close enough to be called a cousin; a (very) close or good friend; a bosom friend.

   Synonyms: bosom buddy, intimate

   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), W[illiam] Shakespeare, The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. […] (First Quarto), [London]: […] J[ames] Roberts [for Thomas Heyes], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], signature C3, recto:

     His Maſter and he (ſauing your vvorſhips reuerence) are ſcarſe catercoſins.

   • 1677 (date written), John Dryden, The Kind Keeper; or, Mr. Limberham: A Comedy: […], London: […] R[ichard] Bentley, and M[ary] Magnes, […], published 1680, →OCLC, Act III, scene i, page 29:

     His Mother vvas an Arch-Deacon's Daughter; as honeſt a VVoman as ever broke Bread: She and I have been Cater-Couſins in our Youth; vve have tumbled together betvveen a pair of Sheets, i'faith.

   • 1759 March 16 (date written), James Boswell, quoting [Tobias] Smollett, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. […], volume I, London: […] Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly, […], published 1791, →OCLC, page 190:

     He [Samuel Johnson] vvas humble enough to deſire my aſſiſtance on this occaſion, though he and I vvere never cater-couſins; […]

   • 1837–1845, Thomas Ingoldsby [pseudonym; Richard Barham], “Family Stories.—No. VI.—Mrs. Botherby’s Story. The Leech of Folkestone.”, in The Ingoldsby Legends: Or, Mirth and Marvels, London: Richard Bentley, […], published [1840], →OCLC, page 94:

     The world talks loudly of your learning, your skill, and cunning in arts the most abstruse; nay, sooth to say, some look coldly on you therefore, and stickle not to aver that you are cater-cousin with Beelzebub himself.

   • 1876, Robert Browning, “At the ‘Mermaid’”, in Pacchiarotto and How He Worked in Distemper: With Other Poems, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, stanza 8, page 52:

     Out rushed sighs and groans by dozens, / Forth by scores oaths, curses flew: / Proving you were cater-cousins, / Kith and kindred, king and you!

   • 1965, W[ystan] H[ugh] Auden, “Thanksgiving for a Habitat. The Common Life (for Chester Kallman).”, in About the House, New York, N.Y.; Toronto, Ont.: Random House, →OCLC, stanzas 13–15, pages 37–38:

     [T]hat, after twenty-four years, / we should sit here in Austria / as cater-cousins, under the glassy look / of a Naples Bambino, / the portrayed regards of Strauss and Stravinsky, / doing British crossword puzzles, / is very odd indeed.

   • 1968 November, Lewis M. Knapp, “Smollett and Johnson, Never Cater-cousins?”, in Arthur Friedman, Edward W. Rosenheim, editors, Modern Philology: A Journal Devoted to Research in Medieval and Modern Literature, volume 66, number 2, Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, →ISSN, →JSTOR, →OCLC, page 154, column 2:

     This discovery of additional data will probably indicate that [Tobias] Smollett and [Samuel] Johnson, both frustrated competitors, and both Samsons breaking the records of other literary athletes, sometimes disliked each other, but that occasionally they enjoyed the happiness of being cater-cousins.

2. (figurative) A thing which is closely associated with or related to another thing.
   • a. 1556 (date written), Hugh Latimer, “A Frutefull Letter of Maister Latimer Written to a Certaine Gentilman”, in John Foxe, Actes and Monuments of These Latter and Perillous Dayes, […], London: […] Iohn Day, […], published 30 March 1563 (Gregorian calendar), →OCLC, book V, page 1351 [1420], column 2:

     But he þ^t [that] wil take his brothers parte against right, as to ratifie his brothers wrong deceyuing, he is to much natural, tanquam sequens ingenium siue inclinationem naturæ corruptæ contra voluntatem dei [as one following the disposition or inclination of the corrupt nature against the will of God]. And so to bee naturall maye well seme to be cater cosen or cosen germane with (to be diabolicall).

   • 1599, [Thomas] Nashe, Nashes Lenten Stuffe, […], London: […] [Thomas Judson and Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and C[uthbert] B[urby] […], →OCLC, page 16:

     To this Commune bonum (or euery horſe his loafe) Yarmouth in propinquity is as the buckle to the thong, and the next finger to the thumbe; not that it is ſibbe or cater-couſins to any mũgrel Democratia, in vvhich one is all, & all is one, but that in her as they are not al one ſo one or tvvo there pockets not vp all the peeces, […]

Alternative forms

• cater cousin

Translations

person who, while not being a blood relation, is regarded as close enough to be called a cousin — see bosom friend

thing which is closely associated with or related to another thing

• Finnish: see: kuin paita ja peppu
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can

Further reading

• “cater-cousin, n.”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present, reproduced from Stuart Berg Flexner, editor in chief, Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Random House, 1993, →ISBN.

Anagrams

• Tucciarones