cattywampus
May. 21st, 2007 07:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordcattywampus, also catawampus and many other spellings - adj. and adv., katercorner, askew, situated or moving across a diagonal.
Which last I grew up spelling cattycornered and correctly people who said it as kittycorner. The first part, cata-/cater- is obscure enough, but seems to be related to French quatre, four, in the sense of four-cornered. Wampus is harder -- could be nonsensical variation or related to Scots wampish, to wriggle or twist. (Note that the sense of catawampus as an imaginary fierce animal comes from catamount, another name for a mountain lion, or "cat o' th' mountain.")
---L.
Which last I grew up spelling cattycornered and correctly people who said it as kittycorner. The first part, cata-/cater- is obscure enough, but seems to be related to French quatre, four, in the sense of four-cornered. Wampus is harder -- could be nonsensical variation or related to Scots wampish, to wriggle or twist. (Note that the sense of catawampus as an imaginary fierce animal comes from catamount, another name for a mountain lion, or "cat o' th' mountain.")
---L.
