This week's theme
Odds and ends

This week's words
apopemptic
forficate
addlepated
catawampus
scrobiculate

Get help with your crossword
Crossword Helper

---

Discuss
Feedback
RSS/XML

---

A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(kat-uh-WOM-puhs)

MEANING:

adjective:
1. Askew; crooked.
2. Diagonally positioned: catercornered.

ETYMOLOGY:

From cater (diagonally), from French word quatre (four). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kwetwer- (four), which also gave us four, square, cadre, quadrant, quarantine (literally, period of forty days). Earliest documented use: 1840. The word is also spelled as cattywampus.

USAGE:

"Have you noticed that life seems a bit catawampus lately?"
Scott Marcus; Managing Stress; Times-Standard (Eureka, California); Apr 3, 2011.

"A well-used Old Town canoe lies catawampus at the entrance to the cellar."
Stephen Williams; Why Ask for the Moon? The New York Times; Jun 10, 2007.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: