of cat-heads and catenaries

[Mark Mandel]

Where in "Wiki" or elsewhere did you see this suggestion? It's not in OED or
MWOL, nor in the English
Wiktionary<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cat_o%27_nine_tails>*
or Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat-o%27-nine-tails>. And in any
case the modern German form would be "Katzenkopf", with a "tz".

m a m

* Wiktionary etymology: "From cat + of + nine + tails"

On Wed, Sep 15, 2010 at 6:24 PM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:

There is a suggestion that the name "cat-head" for the anchor beams
> was derived from the German Kattenkopf for the knot with which the
> anchor cable was traditionally attached. The knot's shape resembled a
> cat's head in a way I previously described. This suggestion also ended
> up in Wiki.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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