"cat-head" = large apple (UNCLASSIFIED)

[victor steinbok]

I just got--literally minutes ago--my second (used) copy of DARE I in
the mail (my original copy is in storage and I can't access it
easily). "Cathead 2. large lumpy biscuit" cites Mencken from 2nd
supplement to AL in 1948. But "Cathead 1." is "a woman's breast",
going back to 1805. Might explain the giant apple connection. Then,
again, it might not...

VS-)

On 9/13/10, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC <Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      Re: "cat-head" = large apple (UNCLASSIFIED)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> Google Books has "cat head biscuit" from 1939 in American Speech.  Dunno
> if it's in DARE, but I can't find it in OED.
>
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> Behalf Of
>> George Thompson
>> Sent: Friday, September 10, 2010 4:12 PM
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: "cat-head" = large apple
>>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> ----------------------
>> -
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
>> Subject:      "cat-head" = large apple
>>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ------
>> -
>>
>> Four apples, called cat-head were exhibited last week to the editor of
> the
>> Portland Advertiser weighing a pound each.
>> Morning Courier & New-York Enquirer, October 17, 1832, p. 2, col. 3
>>
>> Neither OED nor DARE has cat-head is this sense.
>>
>> GAT
>>
>> George A. Thompson
>> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> Univ.
>> Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org