"kitty whompus"

Mark Mandel thnidu at GMAIL.COM
Sat Jul 19 19:39:58 UTC 2008


On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 12:18 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> Heard on The Judges:
>
> Spoken by mid-forty-ish, white, female plaintiff, describing busted fridge:
> "The door won't close completely because it's all _kittywampus_."
>
> Judge Marilyn Milian:
> "'Kittywampus'? What does that mean?"
>
> Speaker:
> "Uh, like, 'askew'?"
>
> Judge MM:
> "Oh, like 'out of line.' My husband uses that word to mean '_ginormous_.'"

Maybe from "whompin'" as in "a whompin' big ____"?

--
Mark Mandel

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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