#89679
12/17/2002 10:47 AM
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Joined: Jun 2001
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I heard a word this weekend that I'd never heard before. Just checking here to see if any of you have ever heard of it.
cattywampus
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#89680
12/17/2002 10:49 AM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
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Yew betcha I've heard it. Everthang's gone all cattywampus!
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#89681
12/17/2002 12:16 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
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I've heard of cattywampus, but I'm not sure I would have gotten the definition correct on a multiple-choice test.
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#89682
12/17/2002 3:12 PM
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Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 122
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and i have not. my dictionary translates cattywampus as cattywampus. i would gladly know what that means.
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#89683
12/17/2002 3:22 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
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I would have to say that cattywampus means awry, higgledy-piggledy, every-which-way.
You could say, for example, that the books were laid out on the table all cattywampus meaning that they weren't piled up neatly but were scattered about, possibly leaning against each other, in disarray.
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#89684
12/17/2002 3:25 PM
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Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 122
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Joined: Dec 2002
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#89685
12/17/2002 3:46 PM
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Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 180
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cattywampus = alles durcheinander
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#89686
12/17/2002 3:55 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
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From the Internet:
Posted by Bruce Kahl on February 29, 2000 at 03:03:31:
In Reply to: Re: Cattywumpus posted by Bob DeLong on February 28, 2000 at 20:46:42:
The first element of the word, "cata," is probably related to "cater," also found in the related word
"catercorner" (or, as many folks know it, "cattycorner" or "kittycorner"). "Cater" in these words is an
Anglicization of the French "quatre," or "four," and "catercornered" originally just meant "four-cornered."
To specify that something is "catercorner across" from something else is to stress the diagonal axis of an
imaginary box, as opposed to saying "directly across" or just "across." Both "catercorner" and
"catawampus" are native American colloquialisms dating back to the 1880's or earlier.
The "wampus" part of "catawampus" is a real puzzler. It may have come from the Scots word "wampish,"
meaning "to wriggle or twist," which would certainly seem to fit with "catawampus" meaning "askew" or
"crooked." But "wampus" also may have been a completely nonsensical element, made up by someone
because it sounded funny..
Two other aspects of "catawampus" bear mentioning. First, "catawampus" can also mean "a fierce
imaginary animal," or simply "fierce." The theory is that this sense of "catawampus" is entirely separate
in origin from the "askew" sense, and comes from "catamount," which is an old American folk term for a
mountain lion (cat-a-mount, get it?).
Second, both "catawampus" and "catercorner" are often seen and heard with the first element spelled
"catty" or "kitty." Linguists call this process "folk etymology" -- people replacing an unfamiliar element in
a word or phrase ("cater") with a familiar one ("catty" or "kitty").
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#89687
12/17/2002 4:07 PM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
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Well it just so happens I have sitting here in my list of planned revivalist postings from McCutcheon's "Slang and Everyday Speech" section of his A Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in the 1800s this little gem: > catawamptiously chawed up: utterly defeated, badly beaten. An expression largely confined to the South and West, from at least the 1840s on.< So there must be a relation here. and it sounds like aa apt decriptive to milum's and sjm's Hogwash® experience...catawaptiously chawed up!  'Salright, Connie...I'm not the least kerfuffled that you absquatulated with one of my most looked-forward-to posts...'cause you're some pumpkins!  But don't do that no more...'cause, then, someday, somehow, when you least expect it, you just might find yourself catawamptiously chawed up!
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#89688
12/17/2002 6:50 PM
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Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 742
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 742 |
>cattywampus = alles durcheinander
Now that's a neat phrase, the sort of mellifluous gem that generated my adolescent infatuation with Allemanic. Alles durcheinander is just such a wonderfully apt way to describe my enivirons (at their most orderly, anyway)
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#89689
12/18/2002 2:22 PM
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Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 180
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"Now that's a neat phrase, the sort of mellifluous gem that generated my adolescent infatuation with Allemanic."
My infatuation with all things Germanistik began in adolescence and continues to this day. Hell, now I'm being PAID for it. The Alemanni, by the way, had some pretty cool stuff, judging by the books I catalog.
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#89690
12/18/2002 2:53 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
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From www.word-detective.com
ear Word Detective: A fellow co-worker and I are discussing the proper pronunciation and
spelling of the elusive "kattywampus." We desperately need help to resolve this perplexing
problem. -- Alissa and Jenifer, via the internet.
Desperately? You "desperately" need the spelling and pronunciation? Have the two of you
been cornered in a broom closet by a ferocious spelling bee? Oh well, mine not to reason
why, I suppose. Besides, it sounds as though you folks are doing a bang-up job of wasting
company time, and I'm always up for that.
Unfortunately, and I say this with all the passion of a dedicated slacker, there is no answer to
your question, because there is no standardized spelling of "kattywampus," which is also often
rendered as "cattywampus," "caddywompous" and "catawampus" (as the Oxford English
Dictionary seems to prefer). As for pronunciation, if the choice is between "catty" and "katy"
(as in the name "Katy"), I'd go with the short "a" of "catty" or "caddy." The "wampus" part
seems to be most often pronounced "WAHM-puhs."
Since we're still on our extended coffee break, I'll take this opportunity to answer the question
you folks didn't ask, namely what "catawampus" (as I'll spell it) actually means. Once again,
however, the answer is not simple because the word actually has two quite distinct meanings.
A "catawampus" can be a fierce, imaginary animal, the sort of vicious critter that jumps you in
the woods shortly before you're never seen again. But "catawampus" can also mean "askew"
or "out of whack," as in "Larry's elopement with Eloise knocked Cindy's wedding plans all
catawampus." Neither meaning can be definitively traced, but "catawampus" in the
eat-you-alive sense may well be a variant on the American folk term "catamount," short for
"catamountain," or mountain lion.
The "askew" sense of "catawampus" is a real puzzler. The first element of the word, "cata,"
may be related to "cater," also found in the related word "catercorner" (or, as many folks
know it, "cattycorner" or "kittycorner"). "Cater" in these words comes from the French
"quatre," or "four," and "catercornered" originally just meant "four-cornered." Today
"catercorner" means that two things are diagonally across from each other. The "wampus"
part may have come from the Scots word "wampish," meaning "to wriggle or twist," which
would certainly seem to fit with "catawampus" meaning "askew" or "crooked."
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#89691
12/18/2002 4:11 PM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,074 Likes: 2
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The "askew" sense of "catawampus" is a real puzzler. The first element of the word, "cata,"
may be related to "cater," ... from the French "quatre," or "four," and "catercornered" originally just meant "four-cornered."
I wonder if the Greek "cata-" could have crept in somewhere too. That would be cata- (opposite is "ana-") meaning destruction/tearing down, as in catastrophe and catabolism. Or is this just convergent evolution?
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#89693
12/30/2002 11:44 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
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I tried the URL in Bingley's post, and it wouldn't work. I noticed a typo "wotd" I changed
that to "word" and got the URL, but with message "Page expired". Alas. I wonder if Bingley
copied the URLthe hard way. I always use edit,copy....edit,paste.
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#89695
12/30/2002 11:51 PM
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
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formerly known as etaoin...
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#89696
01/07/2003 4:42 AM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
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In reply to:
I wonder if Bingley
copied the URLthe hard way. I always use edit,copy....edit,paste.
Bingley never does anything the hard way if he can avoid it.
Bingley
Bingley
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