Topic: Cattycorner
Once again, we have time to clear out a few questions that have been cluttering our inbox. Our first is an oldie but goody: what's the tale of the cattycorner?
We'll face this one head-on. Cattycorner, kitty-corner, catercorner, and a few other variants all describe something in a diagonal or oblique position. What's the earliest version? Cater, which comes from the French word for "four."
Hundreds of years ago, English speakers' take on quatre ended up as cater; English gamblers used cater to refer to a four in dice or cards. The placement of four dots on a single die suggested two diagonal lines; by the late 1500s, those imaginary lines had helped establish cater as a verb meaning "to move or place diagonally." Over time, cater also developed the adverbial, dialectal sense "diagonal" or "diagonally," which faded from use after becoming attached to cornered.
So how did cater-corner turn into kitty-corner? Blame folk etymology, the process by which less familiar words (such as cater) are transformed into more familiar ones (such as kitty or catty).
Our second question is much easier to answer: how did gosh become a word? That interjection—which first appeared in print in the mid-1700s—is nothing more than a euphemism for God. It joins golly, gar and gad as colorful and agreeable expressions for the almighty.
Questions or comments? Write us at wftw@aol.com Production and research support for Word for the Wise comes from Merriam-Webster, publisher of language reference books and Web sites including Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition.
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