ABOUT-WORDS-L Archives

From: Lee Daniel Quinn <>
Subject: catty corner
Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 19:45:49 -0500

OK Jerry, here you are:
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At 03:11 PM 11/9/98 -0800, you wrote:
>Just wondering if you know the origin of the saying 'Kitty corner"
>which usually refers to the directly opposite corner of an
>intersection (for example the building on the north east corner
>of an intersection is said to be kitty corner to the building
>on the south west corner).
>
>Cheers,
>Colin
>
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First -- Kitty-corner is a childish variation of catty-corner
which is a variation of either cater-corner or cater-cornered.

The hinge that this phrase swings on is "cater," which is from
the French "quatre," which brings us to the idea of four-cornered.

Through folk etymology, folk saw in this phrase a feline idea and
thus the kitty or cater corner.

Believe it or not, there is a version of this phrase in the word
"cattawwampus" or cattywampus that is southern USA. In this area
you will hear people say: "He walked cattywampus across the
intersection."

Finally, it dropped the sense of four corners entirely and became
"a caterwampus cat." This was a goblin that southern slave-owners
invented to convince slaves that if they tried to escape the
caterwampus cat would get them.

Quit a trip, isn't it?

Now one more slight turn. My RH Dictionary give this definition:

cat·er-cor·nered, adj.
1. diagonal.
—adv.
2. diagonally. Also, catty-corner, catty-cornered, kitty-corner,
kitty-cornered.
[1830–40; dial. cater (adv.) diagonally (prob. to be
identified with obs. cater four < MF quatre < L quattuor)
+ CORNERED]

And, with that, I take my leave to hunt the caterwampus cat that has
been bothering since I started this whole thing.
___________________________________________________________________
GrampsQ,
Your sedulous sempiternal, (but never mendacious) quidnunc, somewhat
lexiphanic, and positively latitudinous doyen,
Lee Daniel Quinn
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At 05:44 PM 03/18/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>Back again. Somebody asked me about a phrase. Evidently on "Millionaire"
>the other night (I don't watch) a question went something like this.... if
>your northeast corner of a room and you went "kitty corner", what corner
>would you be in? (sic)... The main thing was the expression "kitty corner".
>
>I would have not understood immediately because we say "katty corner"....
>meaning diagonally across. Anybody got any explanation? Maybe a regional
>dialect thing? This is from SC, and a true Southerner asked me. I'm a
>damn Yankee (that's one that came down South and stayed), and I always
>heard katty corner too. Thanks. Jerry

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• catty corner by Lee Daniel Quinn <>