cathead

English

WOTD – 29 October 2024

Etymology

A cathead (sense 1.1) on the Russian frigate Shtandart with a cat’s head carved on the end.

A cathead (sense 1.1, left) of the Swedish East Indiaman Götheborg to which an anchor has been secured.

A diagram showing the parts of a ship’s anchor. The part labelled a is the ring; ab is the shank; the two parts labelled g are the flukes; and hk, the stock, is a bar going through the upper portion of the shank perpendicular to the flukes. The anchor is raised to or lowered from the cathead (sense 1.1) by a cable or chain attached to the ring at the stock end.

A decorative cathead (sense 1.2).

The noun is derived from cat +‎ head.

Sense 1.1 (“heavy piece of timber projecting from a ship on which an anchor is raised or lowered, and secured”) is from the fact that such a timber traditionally had a cat or lion’s head carved on its end. Sense 4 (“short for cathead biscuit”) is apparently from the fact that the biscuit is similar in size to a cat’s head.

The verb is derived from the noun.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkæthɛd/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkætˌ(h)ɛd/
• Hyphenation: cat‧head

Noun

cathead (plural catheads)

1. (nautical)
   2. A heavy piece of timber projecting somewhat horizontally from each side of the bow of a ship on which an anchor is raised or lowered, and secured when not used, from its stock end.
      • 1840, R[ichard] H[enry] D[ana], Jr., chapter XXIX, in Two Years before the Mast. […] (Harper’s Family Library; no. CVI), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers […], →OCLC, page 349:

        "Hurrah, for the last time," said the mate; and the anchor came to the cat-head to the tune of "Time for us to go," with a loud chorus. Everything was done quick, as though it were for the last time.

      • 1898 September, Joseph Conrad, “Youth: a Narrative”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXIV, number DCCCCXCV, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publication Co., page 325, column 1:

        The cat-heads had burned away, and the two red-hot anchors had gone to the bottom, tearing out after them two hundred fathom of red-hot chain.

   4. A decorative element at the end of such a timber that often depicts a cat's head.
2. (technology, chiefly mining) A (small) capstan (“vertical cylindrical machine that revolves on a spindle, used to apply force to cables, ropes, etc.”) or windlass (“type of winch”) forming part of hoisting machinery.
3. (UK, dialectal) A nodule of ironstone containing fossil remains.
   • 1729, J[ohn] Woodward, “A Catalogue of the Plants in Stone, Contained in the First Classis”, in An Attempt towards a Natural History of the Fossils of England; […], tome I, London: […] F[rancis] Fayram, […]; J[ohn] Senex, […]; and J. Osborn and T[homas] Longman, […], →OCLC, part II (A Catalogue of the English Fossils in the Collection of J. Woodward […]), page 14:

     A piece of a ferruginous ſtoney Nodule having in it 3 Leaves of a capillary Plant […] Theſe Nodules, vvith Leaves in them, are called Catheads, and ſeem to conſiſt of a ſort of Iron-Stone, not unlike that vvhich is found very plentifully at Robinshood's-Bay in Yorkſhire, and in the Rocks near VVhitehaven in Cumberland: vvhere they there call 'em Cat-Scaups, and are frequently melted vvith the ſofter Iron-Ores.

5. (US) Short for cathead biscuit (“a large fluffy biscuit, typically served with gravy”).
   • 1969, Maya Angelou, chapter 6, in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →LCCN, page 36:

     The trick to eating catheads was to get the butter on them before they got cold—then they were delicious. When, unluckily, they were allowed to get cold, they tended to a gooeyness, not unlike a wad of tired gum.

Alternative forms

• cat-head

Related terms

• cat-back-rope, cat-rope
• cat-block
• catfall, cat-fall
• cathead biscuit
• cat-head-stopper, cat-stopper
• cathook, cat-hook

 

Translations

heavy piece of timber projecting from a ship on which an anchor is raised or lowered, and secured

• Arabic: رجام ?
• Catalan: arganell (ca) m, serviola (ca) f
• Dhivehi: ގުޑުގުޑާ (guḍuguḍā)
• Finnish: ranapalkki
• Galician: please add this translation if you can
• German: Kranbalken m
• Italian: ceppo (it) m, grua di capone f, gru di capone f
• Polish: kotbelka f
• Portuguese: serviola f
• Russian: кат-ба́лка f (kat-bálka)
• Swedish: kranbalk c
• Ukrainian: кат-балка ? (kat-balka), кра́мбол ? (krámbol)

decorative element at the end of such a timber that often depicts a cat’s head

• Finnish: kissanpää
• Galician: please add this translation if you can

(small) capstan or windlass forming part of hoisting machinery — see capstan,‎ windlass

nodule of ironstone containing fossil remains

• Finnish: fossiilia sisältävä rautamalmi
• Galician: please add this translation if you can

short for cathead biscuit — see cathead biscuit

See also

• katkop (South Africa)

Verb

cathead (third-person singular simple present catheads, present participle catheading, simple past and past participle catheaded)

1. (transitive, nautical) Synonym of cat (“to hoist (an anchor) so that it hangs at the cathead (noun sense 1.1)”)
   • 1840, R[ichard] H[enry] D[ana], Jr., chapter XXV, in Two Years before the Mast. […] (Harper’s Family Library; no. CVI), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers […], →OCLC, page 270:

     [T]he whole canvass of the ship was loosed, and with the greatest rapidity possible, everything was sheeted home and hoisted up, the anchor tripped and catheaded, and the ship under headway.

Alternative forms

• cat-head

Translations

synonym of cat — see cat

Further reading

• cathead on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• cathead (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia