From the first time I heard it and on the rare occasions since, “cattywampus” has always struck me as a weird word. But come to think of it, its synonym “askew” is kind of strange, too.
my dad used cattywampus a lot, if something he was building or me and my brother were putting together and it was not stright he would tell us its cattywampus..
or he would tell us we did something backasswards