Kitty-corner, or catty-corner, is a classic example of the
phenomenon known as folk-etymology. When a word or phrase makes
little apparent sense, it will often mutate into a form that
seems more familiar. The term was originally catercorner. Cater
is an old dialectical term for diagonal. It derives from the
French quatre or four. Cater dates to the16th century, appearing
in Barnaby Googe’s 1577 translation of Heresbach’s Foure Bookes
of Husbandry: The trees are set checkerwise and so catred
[partim in quincuncem directis], as looke which way ye will,
they lye level. By the early 19th century, the folk etymology
had set in. From Joseph C. Neal’s 1838 Charcoal Sketches: One of
that class...who, when compelled to share their bed with
another, lie in that engrossing posture called “catty-cornered.”
(Source: Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition) Copyright
1997-2013, by David Wilton