What Happens When the World Goes Cattywampus?

If you know me, you know I love words. Specifically, I love learning about the origins of words. I also love words that have character. Words that just make you smile all by themselves, without needing any context at all.

Cattywampus is one of those words. Can't you just hear the Southern twang of someone's Mama? You just know she's discovered her living room all littered with kids' toys and sports equipment. Or she's trying to help her daughter put her hair up in a do, and everything just keeps going wrong.

Cattywampus is a word you can savour. Go ahead, roll it around in your mouth. Doesn't it feel rich?

Possible Etymology

The first part, “catty,” may come from an obsolete word that means “diagonal.” It could be related to “catty-corner,” which comes from the Middle English “cater-corner.” Cater- in this expression further derives from the French quatre, meaning “four.”

Douglas Harper, of the Online Etymology Dictionary, tells us the second part of cattywampus could be from a Scottish word, “wampish,” meaning to wriggle, twist or swerve about.

Made-Up Word?

The coolest thing about cattywampus is that it's very possibly an invented word. Harper mentions that the current adjectival form appeared in the 1940s, when it was simply used as an intensive. It had no specific meaning, though the first part of the word may have been intended to sound Greek. Victorian era Brits were very taken with Classical Antiquity, and would have loved the idea of creating a new word that sounded as though it had ancient origins!

Harper continues, saying cattywampus was originally used in British lampoons of American English; it didn’t come into its current usage after 1860. I had to wonder if this wasn’t the result of the Americans reclaiming the word for themselves. What a triumph to give the word a proper meaning, and defeat the Brits who were poking fun at them by laughing at themselves!

Adding Colour to Conversation and Prose

Whatever the origin of cattywampus, this is a word worth tucking away for just the right moment. You never know when it might come in handy! Whether it be in your writing, or just to add colour to a casual conversation, I'm sure it will impress.

So next time something is all askew and out of order, remember that it's cattywampus. Pull out that fine colloquialism, and see how many eyebrows you can raise!

Note: This article was reworked from an original work published by the author in November 2013 on Bubblews

U is Not a Word!

I was looking at a Facebook update on the weekend, and for such a short message it had a large number of errors. The kind of errors I would hope most people can see immediately, if they have a decent grasp of the English language. I pointed it out to my husband, who was about as put off by it as I was. It was meant to convey a message about what the individual was doing at that moment in time, but it also told a story about what the person hadn't been doing the past few years. And probably, about what that young person's teachers had been neglecting too.

I know I'm not the only one who appreciates a well crafted turn of phrase. There are still literate people out there who enjoy reading a colourful description. There are still lots of curmudgeons who complain about the mistaken substitution of certain homophones in writing, and who are concerned with how common netspeak has become.

No, "U" is not a word! It's one thing when you are paying for a newspaper ad by the letter, or when you are limited to 140 characters per Tweet. But what about when the abbreviations creep into your other writing? What about when netspeak creeps into your verbal self-expression? Have you ever caught yourself saying "LOL" or "OMG" out loud?

I learned to use abbreviations and self-styled shorthand in high school to take notes. These are useful things, as are the abbreviations that allow people to convey meaning concisely using a Tweet or a text message. I'm not a fan of certain abbreviations, but there are lots that I will use. And hey, I'll gladly add an emoticon where it fits too.

But I am concerned. In this world of electronic everything, autocomplete functions, and fill-in-the-blanks worksheets, are we getting enough practice actually writing out full words and sentences? Do our kids ever do boardwork at school? Do they really learn to write compositions and essays, or are they being taught essentially to cut and paste? Will they remember how to write something out longhand when it matters?

College professors complain that we have an entire generation of high school graduates who can't do simple arithmetic without a calculator. how many of these same young people similarly can't construct a sentence or a paragraph, don't know how to write a business letter, and think that "U" is a word?

My daughter was saying the other day that she doubts a certain public figure would respond if she wrote to him, so I told her to send him a letter and see what happens. Her response was, "I don't know how to write a letter."

Time to get out the writing pad! If I'm going to complain about it, I'd best be doing something to fix the problem too. It's time to review letter writing skills with my girls...

I'm blogging my way from Z to A in May!
You can find my "V" post at The Special Needs Family.

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