cater-corner
See also: catercorner
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
Presumably a clipped form of cater-cornered, from cater + cornered, q.v., although catty-cornered is attested earlier (1838).
Pronunciation edit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈkatəˌkɔːnə/, /ˈkeɪtəˌkɔːnə/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈkætəˌkɔɹnɚ/
Audio (US) (file)
Adjective edit
cater-corner (not comparable)
- (US, Canada) Of or pertaining to something at a diagonal to another; of four corners, those diagonal to another.
- The Empire State Building and the old Altman's Department store are catercorner, at Fifth Avenue and East 34th Street, with the ESB at the southwest, and Altman's at the northeast.
- 2012, Stephen King, chapter 20, in 11/22/63, page 531:
- From my living room, I trained my binoculars on the redbrick monstrosity catercorner from me.
- (UK dialect, obsolete) Uneven, not square, as mislaid stones or people with a limping gait.
Adverb edit
cater-corner (not comparable)
Translations edit
diagonally across
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Derived terms edit
Various corruptions exist, replacing unfamiliar cater with words related to cat, catty, kitty, caddy, etc. An almost identical process occurred in Germanic, with many place names have Kat or similar components, which are not plausible due to relationships with cats (German Katze), but rather are ascribed as due to being crooked, in a corner, or otherwise curved.
- catty-corner, cattycorner, caddy-corner, katty-corner
- catty-cornered, cattycornered, caddy-cornered, katty-cornered
- kitty-corner, kittycorner
- kitty-cornered, kittycornered
See also edit
References edit
- “cater-cornered, adv. and adj.”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1972.
- “Kitty-corner” in Anatoly Liberman's Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology: An Introduction, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008, →ISBN, pp. 133–135.