catawampus

Alternative forms

• catawamptious; catawampous; cattywampus; cattywampous; caliwampus; caliwampous; cankywampus; kittywampus; gittywampus; skiwampus

Etymology

In the fierce sense probably from catamount (mountain cat).

The crooked sense may at least partly derive from the same source as the "cater" in cater-corner, which some would derive from Middle French catre (“four”)- in reference to four corners/square- from Old French quatre (“four”), from Latin quattuor. This is disputed by others, who suggest a possible Old Norse or other Scandinavian origin. See cater-corner and cater-corner for more.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌkætəˈwɑmpəs/, /ˈkætəˌwɑmpəs/

Adjective

catawampus (comparative more catawampus, superlative most catawampus)

1. Out of alignment, crooked, cater-corner.
   • 1885, Charles Egbert Craddock, Down the Ravine:

     "Waal, I noticed ez the aidge o' one o' them boards war sot sorter catawampus, ...".

2. Fierce, destructive.
   • 1844, Charles Dickens, chapter 21, in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit:

     There air some catawampous chawers in the small way too, as graze upon a human pretty strong; but don't mind them, they're company.

Noun

catawampus (plural catawampuses)

1. (US) A fierce imaginary animal, a bogeyman.

References

• Jonathan E. Lighter, Historical Dictionary of American Slang, Volume I, A-G. Random House USA, 1994. →ISBN.
• Frederic G. Cassidy, Dictionary of American Regional English, Volume I, A-C. Harvard University Press, 1985. →ISBN.
• Eric Partridge, The Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang. Routledge, 1973. →ISBN.
• “catawampus” in Mrs. Byrne [Josefa Heifetz Byrne], Mrs. Byrne’s Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure and Preposterous Words: Gathered from Numerous and Diverse Authoritative Sources, London: Granada Publishing, 1979, →ISBN.

Further reading

• Down the Ravine by Charles Egbert Craddock at the Internet Archive
• The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit at Project Gutenberg