Posted on 08/08/2025 12:04:37 AM PDT by kawhill
The strangest words in the English language Cattywampus Originating in the Colonial United states and still used in the deep South, cattywampus means something that is in disarray, that is askew, or something that isn’t directly across from something.
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I grew up using kitty corner and cattywampus, and tump, as in “the potted plant was tumped over”.
I say thingamagig and doohickey a good bit. Discombobulated is something I used to hear a lot. My mammaw used to refer to smelly stuff as “stinks like karn” (that’s the way she pronounced it...which one day I tried looking that up and realized that maybe she was referring to cairn which can be a burial place in Scotland. She is Irish-Scot with some Dutch origin.
In Britain you pee in the water closet, which is located in the toilet.
How about the ordinary sounding, but obscure?
Drey.
Delope.
Hemidemisemiquaver
Zzyzx,
Unincorporated town in the California desert with a population of 1.
Ointment
Defenestration: to throw someone out of a window. This happened with such frequency that we needed a word in English for that particular occurrence.
I misunderestimated that
"water closet"
Number one is “immigration” and number 2 is “asylum.”
The ever popular, ‘blurb’
I hope this thread doesn’t turn into a donnybrook, fisticuffs and all.
Fustian, you sialoquent blatherskite. What kind of tatterdemalion ninnycock do you take me for?
Colonel Angus.
Scrawberry Skreet. Skrimp. Oh wait. That’s Ebonics.
You might have an opportunity to weigh in here.
My Granny used to say that she was going to “bobscribble” me.
Labels on the heads on Navy ships stated, “Crew WC, WR and SH”
Water Closet, Wash Room and Shower.
BTW for you landlubbers, Head is the restroom.
“People threw their crap out onto the street???”
I’ve heard that’s the reason why, when a lady and gentleman are walking together, the man is on the outside. It started because the trajectory of the crap thrown out the window would be more likely to hit the far side of where people were walking.
IDK if true — just what I’ve heard.
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