A: Mary has invited us to tea at her house this Sunday.

    B: Okay. But I’ve never been to her house.

    A: Her house stands kitty-corner across the entrance of the community park.

    Note: The word “kitty-corner” has many different variations: catty-corner, caddy-corner, cat-a-corner, or kit-a-corner. They all mean the same thing: something that is directionally diagonal from a certain point. Interestingly, despite all of the “cats” and “kits,” the word has nothing to do with domesticated felines. Rather, it stems from the word cater-corner. Cater is an English dialect word meaning “to set or move diagonally.” It is derived from the French quatre, which means “four” or “four-cornered.” The word quatre was first introduced into English as the word for the number four on dice, and was promptly anglicized to cater. Early versions of cater-corner were “caterways” and “caterwise,” which meant the same thing.