Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Catawampus aka cattywumpus

Catawampus has that joyful cadence that makes me want to do something. Maybe dance. It also has a number of different spellings, including: catawampous, cattywampus, catiwampus. How can one not love a word like this?

The definition is pretty straightforward. Heh heh, that's a little joke because one definition is "askew, awry, wrong," which according to the Online Etymology Dictionary was in use in the U.S. by 1864, and by 1873 was being used to indicate "in a diagonal position, on a bias, crooked."

And there's more....
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According to the entry, it first appeared in 1834 in the form of catawampusly, expressing no certain meaning but adding intensity to the action: "utterly, completely; with avidity, fiercely, eagerly." I checked Americanisms, Old and New (from 1889) and sure enough, it lists catawamptiously "with avidity; fierce eagerness." Online Etymology Dictionary adds:

It appears as a noun from 1843, as a name for an imaginary hobgoblin or fright, perhaps from influence of catamount.*

So what about the word itself? The Online Etymology Dictionary suggests that the first element might have evolved from cater, "to set or move diagonally." The second element might be related to Scottish wampish "to wriggle, twist, or swerve about." Then the writer gives a shrug:

...Or perhaps the whole is simply the sort of jocular pseudo-classical formation popular in the slang of the times....

A catawampus catamount

* Catamount: 1660s as a shortening of cat-o'-mountain (1610s), from cat of the mountain (mid-15c.), a name applied 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. (from Online Etymological Dictionary)