Wondrous Words Wednesday – Catawampus

Posted February 2, 2022 by elzaread in Wondrous Words Wednesday / 21 Comments

Greetings you guys! How are you today? I am just a tad bit upset, but will tell you later. Yes, we are slightly late with posting our WWW post. Part of why I am so terribly upset. Today’s Wondrous Words Wednesday will be a really quick post, as my Mommy and Daddy are packing to go away for the weekend. Yes, of course that’s why I am upset!

Wondrous Words Wednesday is hosted by yours truly. The concept is fairly easy – all you need to do, is share any new (or new to you) words you came across this week and share them with us. You are also welcome to share words you simply want to show off to us. For more on Wondrous Words Wednesday, you can click here.

We got our word for today, from the lovely Wendy and Dani over @ ODaniGirl. They joined us two weeks ago and we simply love this word!

Say it out loud. Gosh – that sounds so good. But I just don’t think the definition is suitable at all. I believe catawampus should rather be one of those spell words in Harry Potter where they simply wave the wand, say “Catawampus!” and all dogs become cats. Or even better, all boring kibbles turn to salmon.

But I am getting seriously distracted here. There aren’t a lot of variations of the word. It appears to be dialectal:

1 dialectal : fierce, savage, destructive.

2 dialectal : askew, awry, cater-cornered.

Catawampus, meaning “askew, diagonal,” is first recorded in the 1830–40s. Originally, catawampus also meant “fierce.” It’s thought to be an American colloquialism influenced by the cater- in cater-cornered (or for many of us, kitty-corner) and wampish, Scottish for “flopping about.”

I still think it will work way better as a spell. Maybe I can try it on Mommy and Daddy and they will take me with….

wordless Wednesday

Over the last couple of weeks, we joined up with Wordless Wednesday. From new words to no words, perfectly combination. Wordless Wednesday is hosted by Sandee @ Comedy Plus and it’s even more simple than Wondrous Words Wednesday.

Wordless Wednesday (WW) is a visual blogosphere phenomenon. Wordless Wednesday is a simple blog post featuring a photo which conveys a message that speaks for itself without using words. One thing for sure is this is a fun and easy meme to do. So come and join us in Wordless Wednesday.

When I was a little kitten, Mommy and Daddy couldn’t bare the thought of leaving me alone. So in the carrier and off we’d go. But I didn’t/don’t like the carrier and would put on quite the show until I was let out. Nowadays, I stay at home with the rest of the gang and we have the world’s most gorgeous baby-sitter coming to housesit. But don’t tell Mommy that I actually love it when Melissa is here. She has to believe that I’m terribly upset.

Once again, apologies for the late post (or is it only late here in SA?). If you want to join us and share your Wondrous Word with us, just leave a link in the comment section.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

 

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21 responses to “Wondrous Words Wednesday – Catawampus

  1. Mae

    That is definitely a great word, and a wonderful photo of the little white kitten.

    best… mae at maefood.blgospot.com

    • elzaread

      Hi there Claire! It is a fun bi-weekly feature and we always have loads of fun with it. I love languages and seeing that English is my second language, there are numerous new words for us to learn. Lots of fun to link it to Wordless Wednesday too, quite the contrary I know, but that’s the fun!

      Thanks for stopping by! I hope you will visit us again!

  2. Elza,

    Thanks for visiting today. It’s nice to meet you. Although, I’m not a literary buff and my reading material is mostly made up of blog posts or Internet research I have in fact heard this word before. I can’t say that I knew its meaning before now, though. I might have at one time but this is not a word that I would use in my regular vocabulary so I probably just forgot it. Anywho, I hear you on be distressed about your upcoming travels. We had a kitty once upon a time who we took with us when we’d go out of town to see our parents. The roads once we got off the interstate are rural, quite twisty in some places which means she got car sick a lot. That wasn’t any fun for any of us. Hopefully, you don’t get sick. Here’s hoping you can find your calm before you embark on your journey. Thanks for sharing such a fun sounding world!

    • elzaread

      Hi there Cathy!

      It’s lovely to meet you and thanks for your message!

      English is actually my second language (I guess it’s Elza’s third), so there are sooo many English words that are new to us.

      Elza travelled a bit with us when she was a kitten, but it’s just so much easier to leave them all at home with a babysitter.

      I do hope we will chat again soon!

  3. I know that word and I know your peeps know you love Melissa. They go along with whatever you do.

    Thank you for joining the Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop.

    Have a fabulous Wordless Wednesday. ♥

    Sandee recently posted: Wordless Wednesday
    • elzaread

      Thanks for hosting Sandee, we love joining up with you!

      I can’t believe that catawampus is actually such a popular word. I have honestly never heard of it! Truly a wondrous word for me and I am sure to use it a bit more in the future.