[stylist] monday word: cattywumpus or wompus

Tue Jan 3 12:31:28 UTC 2012

Interesting word. Here in the north midwest I've 
heard it's adjective use  pronounced or used as: 
"kitty-wampus". Generally meaning "kitty-corner" 
diagonal to, or a bit off the mark.  Which also 
has derivatives as: catercorner 
and  catty-corner. One of those words I think 
that just flew around phonetically and folks tried to spell it various ways :).

Brad

On 1/2/2012  09:14 PM James H. \"Jim\" Canaday M.A. N6yr said...
>Donna,
>the meanings for catawampus you listed all seem to be adjectives.
>
>some seem to me, maybe because of my particular 
>american dialect, to be better suited 
>definitions for catty-corner or catty-cornered.
>
>I am most familiar with catawampus as a noun, as in:
>"what happened there was a big catawampus."
>
>as meaning, major confusion, or a mess, and implying possibly distress.
>
>happy new year all.
>jc
>
>At 08:38 PM 1/2/2012, you wrote:
> >I've heard adults use it before for messed-up 
> days, so I just came up with it.  Thanks Donna.
> >
> >
> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "Donna Hill" <penatwork at epix.net
> >To: "'Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org
> >Date sent: Mon, 2 Jan 2012 15:01:17 -0500
> >Subject: Re: [stylist] monday word: cattywumpus or wompus
> >
> >Vejas,
> >This is one of my hubby's favorites.  I am 
> curious though as to where you are
> >getting these words? When I saw this one, the spelling and definition of it
> >being a strange day didn't ring true to me so I looked it up.  It turns out
> >you have two variants of a variant of the word "catawampus" aka
> >cattywampus." In either case, it's w-a-m-p-u-s.  The only use of the
> >hyphenated word or the spelling w-u-m, was from catty-wumpus.com.
> >It's never
> >a good idea to assume a web domain has been spelled correctly.
> >
> >Here are the top 3 definitions listed ondictionary.com which uses the
> >Randomhouse Unabridged dictionary 2012
> >1.  askew; awry.
> >2.  positioned diagonally; cater-cornered.
> >3.  diagonally; obliquely: We took a shortcut and walked catawampus across
> >the field.
> >
> >It took me a good half hour to sift through the Google search and the
> >dictionary.com site itself, and write this little response to you.  I know
> >it's difficult, but I think you'll find it rewarding to look a little
> >further into these words.
> >Donna
> >
> >
> >
> >Definition for cattywampus:Web definitions: In disarray or disorder; askew;
> >Not directly across from nor adjacent to.
> >en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cattywampus
> >
> >Donna
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> >Behalf Of vejas
> >Sent: Monday, January 02, 2012 1:35 AM
> >To: stylist at nfbnet.org
> >Subject: [stylist] monday word: cattywumpus or wompus
> >
> >Hi,
> >I really would like you to be flexible with me that sometimes, if
> >I'm not sure if the day is busy, or if it's too busy for me, like
> >if I'll be out a lot, my words may come late the night before or
> >late the night after-but at least you'll have them.
> >catty-wumpus (or wompus) (pronounced like it's spelled):
> >a strange day, where maybe things have gone wrong or it's just
> >plain crazy
> >(not actually sure if it's a real word, but I've heard people use
> >it)
> >Flora Flombet thought, as she began writing in her journal, that
> >Friday had been quite a catty-wumpus day.  First, she found
> >herself having forgotten about the band auditions, and failed
> >miserably.  Then her math class was unexpectedly moved from
> >morning to afternoon.
> >Happy New Year All!
> >Vejas
> >
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Brad Dunsé

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