In Texas, a wampus cat is a wild cat. The adjective can also be used of
people, as in "She's a real wampus-kitty"

Don Voorhees
El Paso, Texas

On Fri, 11 Feb 2000, Linda Derry wrote:

> As long as we're talking word derivations. . . .  There's a folk tale/ghost
> story connected to the site I'm working on.  It involves a huge mythical
> creature called the "Wampus Cat."  When I first heard this tale, I
> immediately thought that this much be a clever reworking of the term
> "katti-wampus," and when I shared this thought with some "locals" (since
> "I'm not from around here") they informed me that they had never heard of
> "katti-wampus" - that I was just making up a word.  In my childhood home
> "katti wampus" meant askew, and was related to Katti-cornered (or
> Catti-cornered, or Cater-cornered)  which can be found in a decent
> dictionary.  However, I have been unable to find "katti-wampus" in any of
> the dictionaries at hand.  So my question is: does anyone else use this
> term, and does anyone know its derivation, especially the "wampus" part?
>
>
> Linda Derry ( [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> )
> Old Cahawba Archaeological Park
> Alabama Historical Commission
>