of cat-heads and catenaries

Wed Sep 15 21:13:39 UTC 2010

Please note that the post below contains a lot of diverse information
that includes, among other things:

minor finds on cat-head (already reported)
antedating of catenary
antedating of cat-o'nine-tails
etymological query on cat/cat-head/cat-o'nine-tails
new meaning of catenary (adj./not in OED)
[I would also suggest an entry or sub-entry for "anchor chain" as a
distinct entity--anchor chain was a safety device used to prevent
losing an anchor on rocky bottoms where a rope attachment would be
inappropriate; I dated "anchor chain" to 1799, although the search was
limited to GB; of course, today all ship anchors are on chains (but
small boat anchors may still be attached by cables or ropes).]

I was curious about the origin of various uses of "cat-head". One
common appearance is in reference to something that is now being
referred to as "Mickey Mouse ears"--i.e., two smaller circular objects
attached to a larger circular object. This may explain the naval slang
use noted in HDAS: woman's breast(s). But that would imply that
"cat-head" would have referred to the entire set and this is not the
evidence in HDAS--the identification is usually plural (as in
"cat-heads"). This goes back to 1805, which predates any occurrences
of "cat-head apples" so far noted. As it stands, the sequence suggests
that the apple name /might/ have been derived from the naval slang,
although the direction might have been the opposite or the two may be
completely unrelated. However, I propose that the likelihood of each
of these three declines in the order I listed them. The evidence, so
far is purely circumstantial and the search is still open.

But there is another nautical use of "cat-head". This cat-head is a
large beam across the bow of a sail ship that facilitates direct
vertical dropping of the anchor and prevents the anchor from smashing
into the bow. There is no obvious connection to the image of a feline.
But this does not mean that this use is random--in fact, it obviously
is not. The system of pulleys and tackles for dropping anchor is
identified as "cat" in contemporaneous literature. Other parts of the
setup are referred to as "cat-tail", "cat-fall", etc. This appears to
suggest that "cat" came first and naming of "cat-head" followed, along
with other cat-related names.

So here's my other theory. In fact, it is a number of theories closely related.

The OED has nautical use of "cat" under "cat n.1", with the main
article (1.) referring to felis domesicus. (The nautical entry is
under "cat n.1 7.", which I will refer to as CAT7) The etymology
listed /only/ suggests the pan-European use of [kat-]: cattus, catta,
catto, cath, gato, kot, etc. There is no suggestion of /any/ kind that
any of the uses may have derived from other roots that contain "cat".
I propose that the anchor cat and cat-o'nine-tails are derived from
something else entirely.

Sailors have always been known for colorful and creative language that
occasionally made significant changes--particularly phonological--to
the underlying terminology. Some common terms were puns or folk
interpretations of unfamiliar technical terms. This is not much of an
evidence, but take it as it is.

There is a rather obvious connection between different naval/nautical
uses of "cat"--and, yes, cat-o'nine-tails was also originally a form
of punishment used in the British Navy (and, of course, in other
navies as well, but we are concerned with English here). The OED is
particularly oblique concerning "cat-o'nine-tails" (CONT) etymology:

> see CAT 8: prob. the name was originally one of grim humour, in reference to its ‘scratching’ the back.

This may sound plausible but it has zero evidence behind it (other
than sailors' propensity for grim humor which is equally applicable to
my suggestion). CONT is a simple contrivance consisting of multiple
pieces of rope tied together in a particular fashion. It has a firm
handle to which a tightly wound piece of thick but flexible cable is
attached. None "tails" hang from the head of the cable. Each is a
piece of thinner rope, knotted several times along its length to
exacerbate the punitive function.

Focus on these knotted tails for a moment. Without a close inspection,
each tail resembles a chain, catena. If there was a term for the
weapon that initially involved some variation on the root "caten~",
the term CONT may have evolved as a folk interpretation of the word
with sailors failing to recognize Latin etymology.

It is possible that 1) the term itself was eventually lost, 2) that
normal use of such a term prior to common use of CONT (OED starts in
1695) may have been interpreted simply as "chain" and someone being
beaten with a chain as punishment, rather than the more complex
reference as a version of CONT. Finding such a reference now would be
difficult because we don't even know what to look for. GB does not
look for partial words. An obvious place to look would be naval
codices prior to 1695. Furthermore, similar references in other
languages (meaning something like "cat-o'nine-tails") are unreliable
because they may simply be calques from English usage, rather than the
reverse.

Why would I give such an interpretation? There are two reasons. And I
want to explain the second one first. The "hanging chain curve" has
been known as "catenary" in mathematical parlance since at least the
mid-18th century. OED has it back to 1788, but I found evidence going
back at least another quarter century.

http://goo.gl/BULi
An Introduction to the English Language and Learning. By Benjamin
Martin. London: 1756.
Book I. A Spelling Book for Arts & Sciences. Chapter III. Words of
Four Syllables. Geometry. p. 62

The fact that "catenary" found its way not just into a math treatise
but into a spell-book suggest that its use had been much wider than
previously acknowledged. In fact, there is a math book in GB from the
same period.

http://goo.gl/SfWL
The Gentleman's Diary: or, The Mathematical Repository; An Almanack
for the Year of Our Lord, 1757. London: 1757. p. 19

[Note that the volume is listed in GB as 1748, but actually contains
multiple publications--date visually confirmed from the full image.]

John Landen's Mathematical Lucubrations (1755) also contains a chapter
Of the Catenary.

http://goo.gl/jykq

There is also a 1750 entry (link below), and a few other entries from
the 1750s and 60s that I shall omit.

http://goo.gl/N2zh

But all of this is incidental (even if it antedates the OED for
"catenary"). A more important appearance of "catenary" is in a
non-mathematical sense--something entirely missed by the OED.

http://goo.gl/tXeW
Outlines of the natural history of Great Britain and Ireland. By John Berkenhout
[Orchids.] Diandria. p. 251
> 6. Paludosa. Least Orchis. Bulbs oval, curved. Stalk pentagonal, almost naked. Radical leaves three or four, alternate, rough at the apex. Flowers yellowish green, in a cluster, terminal; upper petal erect, arched. Lip of the nectarium reflex, intire. Bulbs catenary.

Anyone familiar with orchids would immediately recognize why the bulbs
are referred to as "catenary"--they are connected like the knots on a
tail of a CONT. I have not been able to find other instances, but it
is obvious that "catenary" was in dual use, both indirectly
referencing aspects of a chain. If indeed CONT was initially referred
to as the "catenary" or something similar, it is easy to recognize how
naval slang would change it to "cat-o'nine-tails" (note, in
particular, that prevalent use insists on the contraction in the
name).

Now, for the anchor "cat". This is the puzzle that got me looking in
this direction to begin with. "Anchor chain" makes its earliest GB
appearance in 1800 (actual reference from a chronicle entry dated
April 3, 1799)

http://goo.gl/yOTt
The Asiatic Annual Register: or, A View of the History of Hindustan,
and of the Politics, Commerce and Literature of Asia, For the Year
1800. London: 1801
The History of India. Chapter II. Chronicle: May [Note that pagination
starts anew for the Chronicle.] Bombay, April 3, 1799. Am Account of
an Expedition from Surat to the Bunder of Goomtee, in the Gulph of
Cutch.
> Any vessel visiting Goomtee ought to be provided with an anchor chain, as the bottom is very rocky.

Note the distinction between a ship /provided/ with an anchor chain
and one that comes with standard equipment that /does not/ include an
anchor chain. Normal anchor cable was a thick rope, but this is not to
say that anchor chains were uncommon (even though there is little
printed evidence of that in GB).

In any case, a cat would be used for manipulating anchors
irrespectively of whether the anchor was suspended on a rope or a
chain. If the mechanism initially had a Latin or latinate name, an
abbreviation to "cat" would have been understandable. This would later
result in cat-related names for parts of the mechanism.

There is more evidence that "cat" and "cat-head", in some instances,
might have been related to ropes and chains rather than felines.

http://goo.gl/3kp8
Practical essays on agriculture. James Adam. London: 1789
p. 203 (Plate I with the illustrations follows p. 204)
>[A]s the line of draught will vary according to circumstances; such as the level of the ground the horses go on, the nature of the foil to be plowed, &c. it will be found necessary to fix a copse at the end of the beam, in order to raise or lower the draught, and to give the plough land, or not. The cat-head, used in Suffolk, is superior to every other kind of copse. Fig. 1. Plate I. is the cat-head, with the copse fixed to it. Fig. 2. is the side view of the copse belonging to the cat-head.

The cat-head in question (corresponding to OED "cops n. 3., but
lacking a definition under "cat" or "cat-head") is a T-bar attachment
with the rounded upper bar with holes where a pin may be used to
attach the copse at an angle. [See the image at the link, following p.
204.] There is no apparent connection to a "cat", unless "cat" here is
an abbreviation for something else.

Also note that the use of CAT7 and "cat-head" dates back to 1626, even
earlier than CONT (1695).

Couple of other notes. If there is an actual translation of Rabelais
from 1653, than this would antedate CONT to 1653. Bailey has CONT in
his dictionary in 1675. He also has an entry for CAT7.

VS-)

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