[stylist] monday word: cattywumpus or wompus

Tue Jan 3 14:49:58 UTC 2012

have heard it as 
catterwampus, too and I don't know that it's a derivative of catty-corner.  
jc

At 06:31 AM 1/3/2012, you wrote:
>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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