"cat-head" = large apple (UNCLASSIFIED)

[victor steinbok]

Sorry, I'm an idiot--not DARE, HDAS I

VS-)

On 9/13/10, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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
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>> 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
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>

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