Just wondering

[telophase]

Saw someone use "kitty corner" on another LJ and was wondering what-all people use. I've heard all three variations. It's probably regional, but I'm not getting that detailed in the poll. :)

[Poll #1291379]

Now off to a late lunch.

Comments

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Honestly I dislike the word and find it confusing when giving or being given directions.

[octopedingenue]

OH MY GOD I WAS GOOGLING THIS ALL YESTERDAY. After a customer didn't know what I was talking about re: the store catty-corner from us. We have been sucked into OVERLAPPING BRAINSPACE!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Either "catty-corner" or "caddy-corner" I think.

[keelieinblack.livejournal.com]

"Kitty corner", which I use mostly because I like the sound of "kitty" better. (And because "catty corner" sounds to me like the place where the Mean Girls congregate to gossip.)

[mothoc.livejournal.com]

I tend to say "Caddy-corner"

[nekonexus.livejournal.com]

I've always heard it as "kitty-corner" but never actually thought it was spelt that way. *scratches head* I don't know how else I would spell it.

[kintail.livejournal.com]

I grew up with "kitty-corner" (with hyphen, pronounced as one word) and chose the non-hyphenated version in your poll, but I spent a summer as a Visitor Information Counsellor at a Visitor Information Centre which meant that my main task was giving driving direction to tourists and People From Away (the official local term for non-locals), so I learned to be as clear and unabiguous as possible.

Since then I usually say "diagonally opposite corner" unless I'm tired enough to be slipping into various other old regional colloquialisms that most people around me don't understand unless they know me really, really well (ie, Tav).

[weirdquark]

I think I use catacorner, but looking all of the options makes them merge in my brain, so it makes me confused about how I pronounced the concept unprompted.

[riofriotex.livejournal.com]

I say criss-cross.

[chomiji]

Hmmm ... "catercorner" (Random House).

Except I say "catty corner."

[amai-kaminari.livejournal.com]

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=cater-cornered

Other variations are based on geography... Different regions use different spellings.

[lady-noremon.livejournal.com]

I selected 'kitty corner' but I tend to say/hear 'kitty cornered'.

[kittikattie.livejournal.com]

I tend to say "cock-sided".

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

I don't know how you'd spell it, but where I grew up it sounds like 'kate-ee'. And it's not a separate idiom, it is always, always either catey-corner 'cross the street or catey-corner 'cross the way.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I've seen all three.

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

I am used to hearing "kitty corner", but I don't use the phrase myself.

[octopedingenue]

I've grown up hearing it but have only been regularly using it on an increasing basis over the past year as I direct customers to a bookstore across the street. I've found an alarming number of people who do not readily grasp the concept of "diagonally across this intersection;" more and more I'm falling back on "catty-corner," "across the street, and now the other street," and "that building other there, the direction I'm pointing, see the pointy roof, that's where you're going."

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

I've found an alarming number of people who do not readily grasp the concept of "diagonally across this intersection;"

I would very much like to understand that failure. Such a revelation might be on the order of an epiphany. Seriously.

[kurobahikaru.livejournal.com]

I've always heard or used caddy-corner or catty-corner, but mostly caddy-corner.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

Catty-corner, though tbh I don't think I've ever actually seen it spelt. I just used it yesterday, though!

[flamika.livejournal.com]

I actually saw "kitty corner" in a book a couple of days ago and spent half a minute trying to figure out if the author was trying to do some play on words before writing it off to a difference in colloquialisms. I personally use "catty corner," but I'm actually more likely to use "diagonal," just because I've only ever seen "catty corner" in writing.

[puddingcat.livejournal.com]

"Diagonally across from"! Although I've heard cater-corner used, it seems a lot less common in the bits of the UK I know :)

[cicer.livejournal.com]

I've heard catty-corner/caddy-corner, but most people around here just seem to say...'diagonally across from'!

[rachel-renee.livejournal.com]

"Caddy-whompus" I used to say "caddy-cornered" when I was growing up, but since highschool I've said it the other way. We moved aroud a lot, so the influences were different and from all over.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Cattywhompus, as I tend to spell/pronounce it, to me tends to mean something like "stuff out of order" or "turned on end" or something like that, with connotations that it's an extreme form of disorder, not just a little bit. Huh.

[re-weird.livejournal.com]

I usually say kitty-corner, but I understand catty-corner too.