Kitty corner

I thought it would be fun to look into cat expressions, like "Cat got your tongue?", and so this week I decided to look into the phrase "kitty corner". (Also a name I had in mind for if I ever opened a brick and mortar store... of course it would be on a corner!)

What is the meaning of kitty corner? 

First off, I wanted to define kitty corner. It means a position diagonally across from something and is usually used when describing a location or giving directions. For example, you might say the drug store is kitty corner from the gas station. The drug store is not directly across the street, but on the corner diagonally across from the gas station. 

While I've always heard and said it as kitty corner, Grammarist.com says you might also hear the variants catty corner or caddy corner. They also say that since it is used as an adjective, it should really be spelled with a hyphen as "kitty-corner". It may be that I prefer kitty corner because I am American. They say that is the more common phrase in the U.S. and Canada, while catty corner is more common in the U.K. Anyway you say it, it still is used to mean something diagonally across from something. 

What is the origin of kitty corner? 

I started this article because of the word kitty, but as it turns out the term kitty corner didn't actually start out as reference to cats! WordOrigins.org says that the "kitty" part of the word actually started out from the French word quatre, which means 4. Quatre got transformed into Cater in English and adding corner to it morphed it into catercorner to mean 4 cornered. 

WordOrigins.org says the cater started to transform into it's feline variants catty and kitty in the U.S. in the 19 century. They cite an appearance of catty-cornered in a 1838 writing by Joseph C. Neal and kitty-cornered in 1848 in a magazine named Ladies Repository. By 1872, they note that grammar nerds were critizing the use of catty cornered or kitty cornered and trying to correct it back to catercornered, but who ever listens to grammar nerds? Today kitty corner and catty corner are commonly used and catercorner has fallen into disuse, although WordOrigins.org does say that cater-corner is preferred in formal writing. 

When I started this post, I had hoped to find something more about cats on a corner, but kitty corner is still a cute expression that makes you think of a corner full of cuddly kittens! What do you think of the expression "kitty corner"? More importantly (to me), would you go to a cat-themed store called "Kitty Corner"? 

Photo by Pilar Rubio on Unsplash