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You are here: Home / Language / Where does the word “catawampus” come from and What does catawampus mean?

Where does the word “catawampus” come from and What does catawampus mean?

May 15, 2020 by Karen Hill

No one now knows the source of the word “catawampus”.

It showed up in print shortly after 1840 and, most likely, had already been American slang for ten or fifteen years before that.

With humorous reference to General Zachary Taylor at the Battle of Buena Vista in the Mexican War, the New York Herald carried the squib (June 17, 1846):

On Taylor came and met the foe
All marshall’d forth so pompously,
And there he’s slain two thousand men,
All chaw’d up catawampously.

That is, to translate the meaning, as if they had been met by a fierce or savage bogy.

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Filed Under: Language

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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