Catawampus / catawampous / catawamptious

This very strange word with its many alternative spellings, beside the three above, including 'cattywampus', 'kittywampus' etc. is of American origin, and is only found in American English dictionaries like Merriam-Webster. Besides its many different spellings, it also has a variety of different meanings. As an adjective, it can mean 'fierce', 'destructive', or a much more mild meaning of 'skew' or not straight as in crooked. It is first cited in America from the 1830s, and is dialectical in origin rather than mainstream. Some etymologists claim it derives its meaning from an old English dialectical word 'cater' that dates from the late 1500s meaning to cut diagonally and therefore skew, and from 'wampish' that is old Scottish dialectical for 'twisted' or 'out of kilter'. It gets even more weird because a 'Wampus cat' in American folklore is an imaginary cat that is either very ferocious or comical, depending on the many different folklore stories that still circulate about such an animal. All in all, a very strange word or words, surrounded by many strange stories of their origin, most of which are claimed rather than proven.