In a recent issue of Newsweek, a column by Ellis Cose used "cater-cornered," a term I had never previously read or heard, but which seemed to be the same as those I did know: kitty-cornered and catty-cornered. It got me wondering about the etymology. What does a diagonal have to do with cats? Is it just that cats don't respect the boundaries of crosswalks? And what this concept might have to do with catering completely escapes me. My guess is that the differences may be regional or racial. I grew up as a white kid in Oklahoma while Ellis Cose is an African-American from Chicago, but, as I said, I don't recall ever having heard the "cater" variant at any previous time or place. Thanks in advance for a clue.
Regards,
Dan Henderson
Sunnyvale, CA
Here's the Merriam-Webster definition. It looks like it's done that very English thing of taking an unfamiliar word and changing it to a familiar sounding word:
http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/kitty-corner
Main Entry:
kit·ty–cor·ner
Variant(s):
also cat·ty–cor·ner or cat·er·cor·ner or kit·ty–cor·nered or cat·ty–cor·nered or cat·er·cor·nered
Function:
adverb or adjective
Etymology:
kitty-corner alteration of cater-corner, from obsolete cater four + corner
Date:
1838
: in a diagonal or oblique position
I've been waiting for an opportunity to drag in the Dialect Survey (having stumbled upon it only recently):
http://www4.uwm.edu/FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q_76.html
"Kitty" and "catty" were found to be most prevalent (in the US).
Just to reinforce Dilettante's link, it should be made clear that the variants are features of American dialects. No one variant is more correct than another.
Also, the Merriam-Webster etymology leaves something to be desired. Here's the New Oxford American Dictionary etymology: from dialect cater ‘diagonally,' from cater denoting the four on dice, from French quatre ‘four,' from Latin quattuor.
To add to that further, there is a verb "cater" dating to the 16th century that means "To place or set rhomboidally; to cut, move, go, etc., diagonally."
Re the word's origin, though, we had etymologist Anatoly Liberman on the show a couple of years ago, and he insisted that the "cater/kitty/catty/kitty" part is from Danish, not from French "quatre." More at his Oxford University Press blog.