kittywampus, catawapus, cattywapus
catty corner, kitty-corner
Having been a teenage transported between a coast and the mid-west, I find these sorts of phrases very interesting. Pop verses soda was my first introduction to this concept. By moving I had switched to a different informal language.
At first, I was thinking of the word Colloquialism was the correct term for this. But after looking through wikipedia, vernacular is used in everyday life by the general population in a geographical or social territory.
Bingo!
In the mid-west if you want to get the locals wound up ask people to end this phrase.
Duck, Duck, _____
- Goose
- Gray Duck
- Moose
are the most common answers I’ve heard. And many are adamant that they have the correct word.
A friend showed me this: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/dialect-quiz-map.html. My poor map was very confused, probably because of the moving I have done. 🙂
What is your favorite vernacular phrase? Or what did your map look like?