As a writer I love words. The more obscure the better. The sillier sounding the more fun. I like the ones with multiple syllables that have a melody to them.
When I first hear them I try to work them into my everyday vocabulary. This obsession started at a very young age. I can remember confessing adultery to the priest when I was around seven. I had no idea what it meant but it made adults giggle. (That priest had a good story for his poker game!)
Eventually I learned to understand the meaning fully before using words. (Also the fact that adults giggle didn’t mean I wouldn’t get a wallop from my mom).
The first time I heard gob smacked I was gob smacked! It is a perfect word. People’s ears perked up (a lot like Spock on Star Trek). It means utterly astonished. I started using it but it’s not a frequent flyer word. If you use it too much you are always utterly astonished and it holds no allure.
(Note that swear words were originally invented to add emphasis on a mood or comment. The use of them as every fourth word in a sentence totally dilutes the meaning. Did you hear me movie screenwriters? It’s like too many exclamation points.)
I still use “gob smacked” and I have “boogers” for a less traumatic astonishment. (Boogers is not something that comes from the nose. It’s usually the first “bad word” that a young boy learns that makes his parent giggle. I love young boys. They know how to push the envelope. I never could do proper fart sounds with my armpit.)
This past weekend I learned a new word. Catawampus (alternate spelling katywampus). I knew what it meant by the way it was used in a sentence. That is the sign of a good word. If you have to look it up in a dictionary (or google), the word loses its power to well…gob smack.
Since you don’t have the full conversation, I’ll give you the meaning.
“Off kilter or not centered; crooked”
The conversation was about hanging pictures on the wall and other home decorating techniques. My friend classified their style as catawampus. I’ve been in their house. It’s not catawampus (which has a bit of a negative feel to it). It looks fully orchestrated (another great word) but asymmetrical (dang I’m on a roll).
The true meaning doesn’t describe their house but I don’t care. I learned a new word that again will be very difficult to work into my everyday conversations.
I have some friends who are catawampus. That’s a start.
This post is for Louise and Fred, my catawampus friends. (There is no negative feel here. More asymmetrical.)
My brother uses gobsmacked quite a lot.
But I shall definitely add catawampus to my list of words to be slipped into the conversation 😉
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🙂
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I’ll confess to being catawampas on more than one occasion. Seems like an interesting place to find oneself. 🤣
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I love catawampas people!
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Me too! They make life far more interesting.
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I have used the word catawampus all my life. I’m sure it started with my parents. I’ve never written it before, though, and wouldn’t have been sure how to spell it! LOL! I love these weird words and use many of them, to the amusement of my granddaughters. 🙂
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They are fun words to use. When my friends used it, I had to giggle.
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I learned catawampus about 8 years ago from a co-worker. Love the word!
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I love the sound of it!
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Fun post! I love obscure words too 🙂 It is awesome that you use them in a sentence as soon as you can!
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It’s the only way I can remember them and even then it’s questionable. Something happens to your memory as you age and it isn’t good.
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I hear that!
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I like gob smacked! I had toyed with the idea of opening my daily chats up to word suggestions…But I don’t know that I want to challenge myself that much. It’s a challenge already to come up with something daily! But gob smacked… that may just work its way in one day.
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A good word it is!
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I love that word and I never heard it before today. My boss is a collector of unique words and phrases – I one time got him a subscription to Evan Morris “The Word Detective” which was a newsletter full of unique words. It wasn’t expensive to subscribe and he sent me a copy as well for signing Robb up. My boss Robb gets hold of a new word and has to use it over and over again – I see the word “kerfuffle” in his e-mails, as well as memos and letters – he needs to give it a rest and get a new word. 🙂 Anyway, Evan Morris no longer publishes his newsletter due to health issues, but a ton of fun words and their meaning is found at his blog: http://www.word-detective.com/sitemap/
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Sounds like fun. You have to use a word frequently at least at first to imprint it in your brain. Then you can move on. At least that’s how it works for me.
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My boss Robb uses flash cards to memorize the words. He writes the word on one side, and how to pronounce the word and its definition on the other side. I told him about Merriam-Webster online and their pronunciation audio and a little story about the word and he got a kick out of that. So he tries to memorize them. That may sound weird, but my boss had two brothers close in age to him … he was the oldest. Their father was an attorney and he had a set of the “Oxford English Dictionary” at his office. Robb had a set at our office too … over-sized volumes and each volume represents a letter, except “X, Y & Z” are in one volume. The father brought made the boys memorize a page of words a day and he’d quiz them on the words … he was a very strict and unbending taskmaster, not very kind to the boys (who adored their mother). They were so afraid he’d ask a word they didn’t know, that they huddled over the page and memorized each word. Each of them are now wordsmiths. I e-mailed Robb this list and he got a kick out of it. I knew a lot of these words, their goal is to have you use more of them:
https://wordwarriors.wayne.edu/list
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Fortunately I didn’t have parents like that. Both were readers and that was enough for me to inherit a love of words.
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I am glad they were not my parents either. My parents used to read the newspaper cover to cover every night after dinner. I had my books and once I started school, my homework. That was just the way it was and I’m glad too.
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It’s a new one for me … and I think everyone should have at least one friend who is a little catawampus 😉
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I’m struggling to have one normal one!
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😆
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My mother used katywampus when I was a kid. Usually to describe the state of my room, I think.
Terpsichorean is probably my favorite polysyllabic word (it means “related to dancing”). Or perhaps anthropomorphize…something I do to my animals daily.
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It’s a good word for kid’s room! I use personify when describing what I do to my cats. Sounds similar but isn’t that what all good pet owners do?
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We do. Although hopefully we remember that they are cats and dogs with cat and dog needs, rather than people needs, too. I see waaaayyy too many dogs in purses or backpacks instead of running themselves.
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A huge problem is that people rationalize animal behavior as if it was human. Cats and dogs do not punish so a hairball or inappropriate peeing is not revenge. It just is. There may be another reason. They also have short memories and can’t connect if you scold them 10 minutes after the deed. In fact they don’t get yelling at all.
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That’s true. Although Bat Cat would open the drawer, pull out my hair accessories, and throw them in the litter box if I went away on a long trip. Then Commando Cat or Shamu would pee on them.
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Lacy (my black cat back in the old days) would sit in front of me with her back toward me. Perhaps it’s just doing something they can’t do with you hanging around. There is nothing like pee scented accessories. Marks you as a cat person.
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I love cool words — multi-syllable, silly sounding….the whole works. I am not adding ‘catawampus’ to my list!
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🙂
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I love interesting words too! Endoplasmic reticulum is a favorite, although it’s very hard to insert it into normal everyday conversations 🙂 I’ve used katywampus many times but I have never heard of catawampus (maybe it’s a regional thing). As I get older, my go-to word has become “thingamajig” since I can’t remember much of what I’m talking about.
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The wampuses are the same. Just different spelling. I googled your first one and still don’t know what it is! 🙂 Thingamajig or my favorite shortcut “thingy” is common in this house!
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Love this word. I know people who I can use this one, though they might feel the same way about me. We’ll have to see..:)
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We are all a little off kilter sometimes! 🙂
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I love silly words. Catawampus is usually a southern term. I like the words galumphy and onomatopoeia. Speaking of cats, my brother used to have a cat named Mooch. I like that word, too. My husband loves the Italian words and phrases my family uses, but they are more fun with the hand movements that come along with them. 😉
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I didn’t know it was a southern term! I knew a dog named Moose and thought it was adorable! Hand movements? Hmmmm……
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The dog across the street from us is named Moose . . . he’s a Great Dane.
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There is something big, fluffy and friendly about a dog named moose!
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You, my dear friend, made our day! Thank you!!!
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My job is done!
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Catycorner.
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Catycorner is much more common. At least in this neck of the woods.
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I always liked how George Carlin looked at words, but his choices were slightly more conventional. Yours are more unique. I don’t t think I’ve ever used gob smacked, but there’s still time for me to try and figure out where and when. 🙂
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The trick is to remember it when you need it! Often I forget the perfect word.
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I love catawampus~ We also use Cattycorner, both are off kilter!
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We use catycorner to mean obtusely opposite like houses sitting catycorner from each other. BTW spell check wants me to spell it catercorner.
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Of course it does!
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Well you know I love words! How else could I have been a purveyor of flapdoodle and twaddle for as long as I have been?
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And those are two of my favorite words that you introduced me to.
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Careful out there. If you jaywalk catercorner, you may end up catywampus.
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That sounds dangerous for sure!
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I’ve got a few choice words for you:
Tommyrot, Bumfuzzle, and Gardyloo
Words are GRAND!
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Words are fun. Never heard these before either!
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You are a true lover of words. It’s so much fun to play with words, and you are a master at it. I heard gob smacked from English friends and only recently heard Americans use it.
Neighbor Logan has a talent for making fart noises with his armpit, as well as with a hand behind his knee. I think you might be impressed or retro-envious.
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Little boys are so “creative.”
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Interesting post Kate, and a new word on me too.
I also love the word ‘betterer’. It has a nice ring about something being better than better.
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I’ve never heard that one but it’s in the same category as bestest which is better than best!
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Hubby is my bestest pal!
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I say that about my husband too!
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Yay!!
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“It is one of Our favorite words!” says RC Cat.
It’s so nice to hear and romp with words – schools used to do what with students, but now it’s all about multiple choice (silently read) and data…
My mom used to use catawampus all the time – especially when making sure pictures were hanging straight or garments/hems she was sewing.
As you mentioned words used sparingly have more power. Used to be curse words first were reserved for high emotion ( and usually physical pain), or adults said use of those words indicated a weak mind/argument and lack of intelligence as that’s all they could come up with….then cursing of course were used to shock by teens and college kids…who I guess grew up to write tv and movie scripts and never moved on with vocabulary because it was never taught – and cursing is so much easier to shock and get a reaction….only now so common they are yawn?
Circled back to weak minds and lack of ability?
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And oddly very irritating to me. Distracting from plot. I don’t live in an area where curse/bad words are used frequently. Now that I have retired, I rarely hear them at all as we don’t use them at home. Saying “boogers” in one of those teen/young adult films may not provide the punch. I can’t get too many words at the same time but (old and limited brain cell storage) but I love to hear a new one now and then. So glad that Catawampus is a true cat word!
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Exactly. Use the write tool for the job!
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There are so many words like catawampus that I know…or at least know when I hear or see them. But, in my everyday life never use them. Too bad! It gives me consternation.
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They are so fun to use!
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LOL! I have heard that word before but forgot it, thanks for reminding me and I love the pic of your friends looking so happy!
I can just imagine you making the priest laugh at the innocent age of 7 with your new word!
So totally agree with you about your note to movie producers. It’s so annoying!! Ruins the movie for me.
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Even when I was working, people didn’t use bad language that frequently. It was always brought on by anger or surprise. I have seen movies where they use it as an article (a, an, the) and it loses any emphasis (and annoys me).
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So agree! It’s ridiculous!
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I think you would like that game with obscure words where you make up fake definitions. I think it’s called Balderdash. Great group game.
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I think I played that once a long time ago although I don’t remember the specifics of the game.
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Funny you mention this word, Kate. Recently, my friend’s son got a new cat and named him Catawampus. 🙂
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I had never heard this word before. It’s perfect for a cat!
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You need to get another cat and name it that! 🙂
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Sigh! All my cats are catawampus!
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