of cat-heads and catenaries

[victor steinbok]

My apologies is I left the impression that "cat-o'nine-tails" was
derived from German--indeed there is no such suggestion. The reference
was to the derivation of the cathead beam, as the paragraph Mark
quotes--I thought, clearly--implies.

Here's the relevant portion of the Wiki article on "cathead"

> A second "cat head" was associated with a ship's anchor-cable and windlass. This was a square pin thrust into one of the handspike holes of a ship's windlass. When at anchor, the anchor rope (called a cable) was secured to this with a smaller rope tie called a seizing. The English term for this pin was 'norman'. In German, however, it was called a Kattenkopf (cat-head), and in this case it is a reference to the traditional way the top was notched and chamfered off so that in cross section, it resembled the ears of a cat.

I had seen the same explanation with one of the random books that I
came across, but failed to note it, at the time, and, with thousands
of hits for "cathead", was not about to go back and search again.

And, yes, in modern German, it would certainly be Katzenkopf. Take the
Wiki for what it is.

VS-)

On 9/16/10, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: of cat-heads and catenaries
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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
>

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