Word of the Day : June 6, 2017

catercorner \KAT-ee-kor-ner\ adverb or adjective

Definition

: in a diagonal or oblique position : kitty-corner

Examples

The elaborate water fountain is catercorner to the building's entrance, so it's the first thing you see when you enter the foyer.

"A few doors down (near the sushi place in the same strip mall, catercorner from the spiral-cut ham shop) we stopped briefly at Euro Market." — Bruce Dorries, The News Leader (Staunton, VA), 4 Feb. 2017

Did You Know?

Catercorner also has the variants kitty-corner and catty-corner, but despite appearances, no cats were involved in the creation of this word. Cater derives from the Middle French noun quatre (or catre), which means "four." English speakers adopted the word to refer to the four-dotted side of a die—a side important in several winning combinations in dice games. Perhaps because the four spots on a die can suggest an X, cater eventually came to be used dialectically with the meaning "diagonal" or "diagonally." This cater was combined with corner to form catercorner.

Aired June 6, 2017

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