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Cats Kitty Corner Copycat Refer Terms Informally Baby Word

Id ESLPod_0130_CN
Episode Id ESLPod 130
Episode Title Allergic to Cats
Title Kitty-Corner and "Copycat"
Text

Cats are very popular "pets" (animals kept by people for pleasure) among Americans, so it's no surprise that we use a lot of "expressions" (words and phrases) that refer to cats. In fact, there are many cat-related terms commonly used in everyday conversation in American English. If you didn't know the two terms "kitty-corner" and "copycat," you may think they actually have something to do with cats, but they don't.

A "kitten," or more informally a "kitty", is a young or baby cat. Cats of any age can sometimes be informally called "kitty cats." The word "kitty-corner," however, doesn't have anything to do with baby cats. It refers to something that is located "diagonally" (on opposite corners) across from something else, usually across an "intersection," where two streets meet. If you have a neighbor who lives across the street in front of your house and across the street to your left or right, that neighbor lives kitty-corner to you.

"Copycat" is a word used by children to refer to someone who copies someone else's ideas or behavior, such as the way they dress or the way they speak. Adults sometimes use it jokingly to mean the same thing.

For example, if you cut your hair short and "bleached it" (made it a lighter color), and the following week, your friend cuts his hair and bleaches it, you may say, "You are a copycat!"

Topics Health + Medicine

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