This mini episode teaches you the useful word “kitty-corner.”
Episode 148 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you the interesting word “kitty-corner.” Send your questions about English and your suggestions for future episodes to EverybodyESL@gmail.com! (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
The word I want to teach you today is kitty-corner. Kitty-corner. That's k-i-t-t-y hyphen c-o-r-n-e-r. Kitty-corner. Kitty-corner means “diagonally opposite something.” That's kind of a strange way to describe something. Diagonally opposite. What do I mean by that?
Well, imagine that you are in a building on the northeast corner of an intersection. You are in a building on the northeast corner of an intersection. If something is located in a building diagonally across the intersection from you, in a building on the southwest corner of the intersection, you could say that building is kitty-corner to your location. It's kitty-corner. Instead of being directly across the street, it is diagonally across the street. It's across the street at an angle.
Kitty-corner. That's kind of a funny word, don’t you think? Kitty-corner. Why do we say kitty-corner? What does this have to do with kitties or cats? Well, it really doesn't have anything to do with kitties or with cats. It’s a complicated story, and I don’t really understand it. It came from an old word that meant “to move diagonally.” And that old word came from the French word for “four.” Do you know the French word for four? This is what the French word for four sounds like: quatre. Now, that sounds a little bit like cat, like the animal. People thought that that old word that meant "diagonally across" sounded like it had something to do with cats, and then people changed the word so that it sounded like kitty. Well, kitties have something to do with cats. I guess this made sense to people a long time ago. So the word changed to kitty-corner.
I think it's an interesting word, and it's a very useful word. Sometimes we need to use this word to describe the location of something. For instance, if you go to your friend's apartment, and then the two of you are going to go out somewhere. You're going to go out for dinner. Your friend asks you, “Wait, where is your car? I don't see where you parked your car.” And you say, “Oh, you see it over there? It's kitty-corner.” In other words, “It’s diagonally across from your apartment. It's not directly across from your apartment, and it's not right next to your apartment. It is diagonally across.” It’s kitty-corner.
Well, now you know kitty-corner, and now you will have an easier time explaining the location of different things.