kittycorner

cat·er-cor·nered

[kat-i-kawr-nerd, kat-ee-, kat-er-]
adjective
adverb
00:10
Kittycorner is always a great word to know.
So is interrobang. Does it mean:
a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
Also, cat·er·cor·ner, cat·er-cor·ner, catty-corner, catty-cornered, kitty-corner, kitty-cornered.


Origin:
1830–40; dial. cater (adv.) diagonally (probably to be identified with obsolete cater four < Middle French quatre < Latin quattuor) + cornered

Dictionary.com Unabridged

kit·ty-cor·nered

[kit-ee-kawr-nerd]
adjective, adverb Chiefly Northern and Western U.S.
Also, kit·ty-cor·ner.


Origin:
1885–90

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source Link To kittycorner
Collins
World English Dictionary
cater-cornered (ˈkætəˌkɔːnəd) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
adj, —adv
informal (US), (Canadian) catty-cornered, Also: kitty-cornered diagonally placed; diagonal
 
[C16 cater, from dialect cater (adv) diagonally, from obsolete cater (n) four-spot of dice, from Old French quatre four, from Latin quattuor]

kitty-cornered
 
adj
a variant of cater-cornered

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2013 Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
  • Please Login or Sign Up to use the Recent Searches feature
FAVORITES
RECENT