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24 paź 2016 · The true origin of cattywampus may be lost (if it was ever known), but any serious attempt to account for the name should, I think, take seriously the strong tendency of dictionaries during the 1800s to link the term to catamounts—and to the survival of wampus cats even today.
14 cze 2021 · It appears in the United States by 1830 and rather quickly spreads to the rest of the English-speaking world. The earliest use that I have found is as an adverb meaning askew or obliquely. In this sense it may have been influenced by catercorner .
13 lis 2022 · 1660s as a shortening of cat-o'-mountain (1610s), from cat of the mountain (mid-15c.), a name aplied to various large wild cats of the Old World. From 1794 in reference to the lynx, puma, or cougar of the United States and Canada.
2 gru 2017 · It first appeared as a noun (catawampus) in Dickens’ Martin Chuzzlewit (1843), though it probably was first recorded as a noun in American works shortly before that. In that sense, it suggested some sort of hobgoblin or other frightening fantastical creature, likely influenced by “catamount,” another word for a cougar or other large cat ...
The earliest known use of the noun catawampus is in the 1840s. OED's earliest evidence for catawampus is from 1843, in the writing of ‘Robert Carlton’ (real name Baynard Rush Hall).
25 kwi 2014 · It’s possible that catawampus shares the same root as kitty-corner—cater—paired with the Scottish wampish, which means “to wriggle, twist, and swerve about.” This would explain the “askew” and “diagonal” meanings, which were first recorded in 1864 and 1873 respectively.
Catawampus is a term of uncertain origin, likely emerging in the early 19th century in the United States. Meaning: Askew,歪斜的: Not aligned or straight; tilted or crooked.
