"kitty whompus"

[Scot LaFaive]

I'm not sure how we can know that the "cata" in "catawampus" is from
French "quatre" as it is in "kitty corner." Any thoughts?

Scot

On Sat, Jul 12, 2008 at 10:11 PM, James Harbeck <jharbeck at sympatico.ca> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       James Harbeck <jharbeck at SYMPATICO.CA>
> Subject:      Re: "kitty whompus"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> See http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-kit1.htm (last paragraph) for
> something on it by Michael Quinion (who I assume is asleep at this
> hour, so I take the liberty of beating him to the response). The more
> standard spelling is apparently catawampus.
>
> James Harbeck.
>
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