Anyone have a definition of "kittywhompus"

[Steve Campbell]

I probably have the spelling wrong of this slang. The question was brought up in a discussion earlier in the week.

 

[Radshooter]

I always thought it meant the same as discombobulated. Like when you get sideways in the road when your truck should be going straight.

 

[NIsaacs]

Or to be "jillflirted" (sp), all screwed up, not square with anything!!

 

[Mike Ellis]

In our parts it is usually "cattywampus", meaning catty-cornered or out of the desired location. For example, "The furniture movers left the piano in the southeast corner of the room, cattywampus from where the missus had wanted it. " (cattywampus suggesting they stuck it diagonally across from where she wanted it - the northwest corner).



Don't hear it much anymore, about the only time people refer to it is when they mention the school mascot of one of our local towns: the famous Itasca Wampus Cats. There is still a lot of debate from the non-rural crowd as to what a "Wampus Cat" is (some sort of fierce predator like a swamp cat, they speculate), but the older country folk immediately get the wordplay on "cattywampus"

 

[RustyJC]

Cockeyed. For our more enlightened friends, a more recognized synonym might be "askew".



Rusty

 

[B.G. Smith]

"Kittywampus is the pre-tense of "Cattywampus" and "Whamperjawed is the post-tense. It's kinda like being "a little bit better than plumb" or square depending on whether it is horizontal or vertical. Anything of a higher degree would be "humongus" or "bodacious" depending on whether it was post or pre. bg

 

[JTurk]

Cattywampus - "The state of being grossly out of alignment, skewed, or uneven. "



Cattywampus is actually listed in the Unabridged Webster's, but I don't have a subscription. The above came from Ask Jeeves.



Also, in a broader context could be deviant from the expected.

Jay

 

[Truckie]

Cattywampus- I always have taken it as meaning it was every which way but straight and level.



Mike

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

Kittywampus? Catawhobbled? Cattywampered? Cankywampus?



Around here it's "kittywampus," which basically means all out of whack, doesn't squre up worth a darn. Kapeesh?



Actually the correct spelling is catawampus and first appeared in American jargon in the 1850s and came to widespread use except in the Northeast. Read more here: Maven's Word of the Day



Radshooter I thought discombobulated was what a solid axle does when going uphill on a washboarded gravel road, LOL

 

[Radshooter]

"Radshooter I thought discombobulated was what a solid axle does when going uphill on a washboarded gravel road, LOL"



Vaughn... . I think you are thinking of fibberjibbered