[Ads-l] catawampus, bodacious, etc. (Cracker Dictionary, 1830)

[Ben Zimmer]

My Wall Street Journal column this week is on "catawampus," after the word
appeared prominently in the series finale of HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm."
Non-paywalled link: https://on.wsj.com/49zs5Vu (Warning: spoilers in the
first few paragraphs!)

The OED's treatment of "catawampus" and related terms is a bit of a mess,
evidently unrevised since the early OED1 days. These are the current
entries:

* catawampous, adj. (1840) "Fierce, unsparing, destructive. Also, askew,
awry. (A high-sounding word with no very definite meaning.)"

* catawampously, adv. (1853) "See _catawampous_ adj."

* catawamptiously, adv. (1857) "'Fiercely, eagerly. To be catawamptiously
chawed up is to be completely demolished, utterly defeated' (Bartlett Dict.
Americanisms)."

* catawampus, n. (1843) "A bogy, a fierce imaginary animal."

There are no cross-references between "catawampous" and "catawampus," or
any indication that the sense listed at "catawampous" is more typically
spelled "catawampus." There's also no treatment of the many variant
spellings, most notably "cattywampus." Oh, and the sense given as an
adjective is very often adverbial, as in "go (all) catawampus" = 'go awry.'

In any case, here are a few cites that would be useful for the eventual
revisions.

---
Georgia Messenger, May 15, 1830, p. 2, col. 4
The following _Cracker_ Dictionary, suited to our vicinity, has recently
been submitted to the public, through the newspapers and we have no doubt,
from its constant use will be approved.
CRACKER DICTIONARY.
Bodaciously, Corporeously.
Chatawampusly, Obliquely -- bias.
[etc.]
https://www.newspapers.com/article/georgia-journal-and-messenger-cracker-di/145012861/
--
New York Evening Post, May 18, 1830, p. 2, col. 2
The Augusta Courier contains a specimen of a "Cracker Dictionary," which
makes us acquainted with some very curious terms in use among the Southern
Cocknesy. At the head of the list we find the following words: --
Bodaceously, Catawampously, Contraption, &c.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-evening-post-cracker-dictionary/145012990/
---
Carolina Sentinel, June 12, 1830, p. 1, col. 4
The Augusta Courier gives a specimen of _the Cracker Dictionary_, an
unpublished [illegible] some of the definitions:
_Bodiaciously_--means corporeously. -- _Catawampusly_, obliquely, bias.
[etc.]
https://www.newspapers.com/article/newbern-sentinel-cracker-dictionary/145010166/
---

The "Cracker Dictionary" also provides antedatings for "bodaciously" and
other terms. I'm sure the OED editors already have all of this in their
files, as the entry for "absquatulate" (revised Dec. 2011) has the Georgia
Messenger item as the first cite (it appears on the list as
"obsquatulate").

I haven't seen the (Augusta) Georgia Courier version of the "Cracker
Dictionary" referenced in the second and third cites above -- I had no luck
finding it in the Courier archives here:
https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn82015765/

It's interesting to see how spelling variants proliferated from the start
-- "bodaciously" vs. "bodaceously" vs. "bodiaciously", "chatawampusly" vs.
"catawampously" vs. "catawampusly", etc. It's also notable that the
adverbial "-ly" forms appear first, but for ostentatiously polysyllabic
words like this, I guess every syllable counts.

--bgz

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