"kitty whompus"

[sagehen]

on 7/19/08 2:45 PM, Sue Trout at sue.trout at GMAIL.COM wrote:

> [On Sat, Jul 12, 2008 at 11:03 PM, Scot LaFaive <slafaive at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Anyone have any clue where "kitty whompus" comes from? I don't see it in
> HDAS and I don't have access to DARE or OED. Scot]
>
>
> I enjoy lurking on the sides of this lively group and as a thank you for
> such joy, I offer for your pleasure, a brief, edited history of CATAWAMPUS
> in print,  from the  American Dialect Dictionary by  Harold Wentworth, PhD,
> published by Thomas W. Crowell Co. of NY  in 1944. This is a dictionary of
> first recorded written usage of American dialect.
>
> Enjoy, Sue
>
> btw: CATAWAMPUS a permanent twist or turn to one side.
>
> ADJECTIVE  ADVERB
>
> 1899  cattycornered - MASS
>
> 1899  cattercornered - NY
>
> 1890 catty cornered - Seguachee Valley, TENN - meaning zigzag
>
> 1891  a rhombus is a CATTYWOMPUS square - TENN
>
> 1894  CATTERIN' - CONN
>
> 1895  CATABIASED, adj - KENTUCKY
>
> 1902  CATTERWANPUSIN  - south   ILL
>
> 1905-06  this cloth is CATAWAMPUS - UNIVERSAL usage: it means the grain  of
> the fabric is not straight and to pull the fabric on both diagonals to
> straighten.
>
> TRANSITIVE VERB
>
> 1906 catawampus-corner: the democracy of Arkansas  has been
> catawompus-cornered and has nervous prostration.
>
> ADJ  AVD
>
> 1908  cattywompus ALABAMA, GEORGIA
>
> 1911 the close line ran catawampus across  the back yard NEBRASKA
> NOUN
>
> 1915  catawampus cat, wampus cat  a virago, an agressive woman
>
> ADJ  ADV
>
> 1918 cattystrangli', catagoglin' (walking sideways)
>
> NOUN
>
> 1934  an imiginary  fierce animal  - chiefly dial.
>
> EXCLAIMATION
>
> 1938 Catawampus! -  Suwannee River  FLORDIA & GEORGIA
>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Close line".....?  Is this inadvertent or an example of another dialectal
item?
AM

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