Catty-corner or Kitty-corner?

Do you ever say "catty-corner" or "kitty-corner" to mean "diagonally across from something"? If so, which one? The answer may say a lot about part of the U.S. you're from.

In the U.S., which term is more commonly used, "catty-corner" or "kitty-corner?

1. catty-corner

2. kitty-corner

3. Both are used equally.

The correct poll answer is the second option, “kitty-corner.” People in the South are much more likely to say “catty-corner,” whereas everyone else in the U.S. and Canada is more likely to say “kitty-corner.”

Interestingly, no cats were involved in the creation of either term. Both words come from the original base word “cater.” In the French of the 14th to 16th centuries, “quatre,” the word for "four," could also be spelled “catre.” English speakers took this term but spelled it “cater,” and they adopted the word to refer to the four-dotted side of a die, a side important in winning combinations in dice games.

Because the four spots on a die can suggest an “X,” “cater” eventually came to be used colloquially to mean "diagonal." This “cater” was combined with “corner” to form “’catercorner.” Eventually, the dice were forgotten, and the first syllable morphed into a feline form that drove the formation of “catty-corner” and “kitty-corner.”