catty n1 Also caddie, caddy Also sp cattie
1 = tipcat n; the short stick or cat n 3a used in this game; hence n catty stick = catstick n 1. [EDD catty sb. 1. “The game of ‘tip-cat’” 2. “The crook-ended piece of wood used instead of a ball or stone in the game of ‘catty’” ] chiefly MD, NJ, NY, PA See Map
1876 Harrisburg Daily Patriot (PA) 25 Sept [4]/1, The most abominable nuisance to which street pedestrians are subjected is a game of recent invention called “caddy.” 1876 Sun (Baltimore MD) 5 Feb [4]/5, “Catty” seems to be a favorite game with the boys, and is played by striking the end of a small pointed stick with a larger stick or club, which makes the small stick fly up, and before it reaches the ground it is again knocked in a way similar to striking a ball with a bat. 1883 Harrisburg Telegraph (PA) 2 Oct [4]/2, A number of boys were playing “catty” on North street and as Mr. Kutz passed one of the boys struck at the “catty,” his club flying out of his hand and striking the carrier back of the head. 1894 Post (Camden NJ) 2 Feb 1/8, The wayward kids took quick leave, and now they put in the time playing “catty” and “shinny” on the lots. 1897 Eve. Jrl. (Wilmington DE) 20 Dec [4]/3, Jesse K. Baylis . . is . . suffering from injuries to the face and eye inflicted accidentally by a playmate, who was whirling a “catty” stick around his head. 1903 DN 2.350, Catty. . . The cat in the game of tip-cat. 1908 Akron Beacon Jrl. (OH) 25 Mar 1/3, The McCarty boy and Grotz boy, with several companions were playing “caddy” Monday evening. 1912 Blocton Enterprise (West Blocton AL) 16 Jan 1/5, He and some of the other boys were playing caddy, when one of the boys struck the caddy and it bounced up and struck the Meeks boy in the mouth. 1930 Pittsburgh Post–Gaz. (PA) 28 June [6]/5, “Don’t you remember when the boys played it in the streets? There was a piece of wood with sharp ends and they’d nip this with a stick and then go to the goal for a point.” We always called it “cat and dog” or just “cattie.” 1939 Daily Republican (Monongahela PA) 16 Aug 2/1, The boy, playing caddy with William Schmid, 13, started to run across the highway when his playmate batted the caddy to the other side. 1943 Sun (Baltimore MD) 17 Aug 12/7 DE, The game was played mostly on open lots. The piece of broomstick sharpened at both ends was called the pussy. You made a ring on the ground with the caddy stick about five feet in diameter; the pussy was placed in the center and batted from there. 1945 Western Folkl. 4.182 OH, A similar game was played in Ohio some thirty years ago, where it was known as “Catty.” Details of the game are not known, but the sharpened peg and paddle were used, and the rules of the game similar to the others mentioned. 1957 Battaglia Resp. to PADS 20 eShore MD, (Game in which you flip a short stick into the air and try to hit it with a longer stick) Catty.1963 Keystone Folkl. Qrly. 8.115 swPA, We played it and called it Caddy. We hit the tapered end of the caddy with the bat, to make it jump up in the air, and then hit it as far as we could with the bat while it was in the air. It was a little like golf. The one who could hit the caddy down to a line and back in the fewest strokes was the winner. 1965–70 DARE (Qu. EE10, A game in which a short stick lying on the ground is flipped into the air and then hit with a longer stick) 9 Infs, chiefly NJ, PA, Catty; MD15, 23, 25, 26, 31, Caddy; NY40, [kædi]—short for kitty-cat; [used as name for the game] thirty years ago.
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