I was talking to someone today and they used the term catty cornered, I said ‘you mean kitty cornered?’ short discussion ended in my claiming I was right regardless of what he had to say.(no i wasn’t being serious)
So I looked it up and found this
I just say it’s diaganol to _____.
In my family “catty-wampus” means crooked or off-sqaure, not diagonal.
I’ve heard “kitty corner” for diagonal, but not a super common term in my experience.
Brian
It’s catty-corner, not catty-cornered. Not a super common term, heard mostly from my dad.
Kitty-corner, no “ed.”
Yes, that’s the common usage here too.
This.
I agree with N9IWP. “Catty-wampus” means off-kilter, mixed/messed up.
I guess “kitty-corner” although I thought it was more pronounced like “kiddie” so that’s what I assumed it was growing up. Huh.
I always thought it was catercorner and everything else was derived from that.
The poll didn’t have a category for what the hell does that mean anyway so I went with something else. Now I’ve read the defnition I just say boring old diagonal. I’m in the UK btw.
Me too, but everyone I’ve ever heard say it said “wumpus” not “wampus.”
I’ve usually heard “kitty corner”, rarely “catty corner”, even more rarely with the “-ed” in either case, and I’ve never heard “catercorner”.
“Cattywumpus” has, AFAIK, nothing at all to do with diagonals.
I thought it was catecorner. That wasn’t up there so I chose Cater-cornered.
I’ve seen it spelled catticornered, so I never put it together wtih “cat,” to make “kitty.”
I voted for kitty-cornered. If the poll had allowed I would’ve gone with catty-wumpus* as well.
*not to be confused with the Wampus Cat
In western Ohio growing up in the 70’s, everyone said catty-corner. Living in central Michigan since the mid-80’s, I hear only kitty-corner. I still have to think about where I am before I choose which to say.
Kitty-corner, but only for a street.
And I agree, catty wampus doesn’t belong in this conversation. It means something else altogether.
I’ve heard only kitty-corner (as in, “She walked across the street kitty-corner,” meaning to go from one diagonal corner to the other).
Kitty-corner, usually, although I’ve heard catty-corner. And it always refers to buildings on streets, as in “the Baptist church is kitty-corner from my house” (which it is).
I’m feeling very vindicated right now.
The first time I heard this term as a kid, it was kitty. And my sister was there with me. Just a year or two ago, I said kitty, and my sister and her daughter gave me a lot of stick for it. They said it was catty, and everyone knew that, and what the hell was wrong with me?
So there, sis.