Word of the Day

: February 11, 2012

catercorner

adverb or adjective KAT-ee-kor-ner

What It Means

: in a diagonal or oblique position : kitty-corner

catercorner in Context

The café was catercorner to the salon, so after I got my hair cut I walked across the intersection to get some lunch.

"Also new to downtown is the Mars & Beyond exhibit in the Rialto building (catercorner from Sparkroot), which opened on October 22." -- From an article by Carolyn Classen in the Tucson Citizen, November 8, 2011

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."