Stewart, You make a fine point by not taking a position on terminology. There is no "cat's head" on a ship, although the Romans did have the heads of lions and tigers and bears (with apologies to the Wizard of Oz). But your comments do have a certain validity. There is a "cat head" on an old sailing ship, and also on a modern one. But I don't know where the nomenclature comes from. The cat head is a solid timber with no decoration that is a beam from which the anchor is hung when about to be dropped, it is only there to allow the anchor to be dropped clear of the hull, the strain is not taken on the cat head.
There are various "lays" of the lines and cables on a ship, but all are multiple layers. Cable laid versus rope laid, the opposite twist. But I can see no relationship to the cat gut, these lays were many layered, unliked strings. As to it being an actual cat I object, and so does my cat. Unlikely that even them most anti-feline medieval lutenist would choose to take the innnards of a cat - sheep have a lot more length of innards (and are normally slaughetered for food, where cats are only immolated for being witch companions in medieval society). I suggest that most hypotheses of word origins are false, too easy to make a link between a similar sound and a linguistic origin. Were I to have the time I'd make a message too long to read of nautical terms that have no relationship to the land lubber's vocabulary, even though they sound alike Stewart, I agree, Best, Jon ----- Original Message ----- From: "Stewart McCoy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Lute Net" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> Sent: Friday, September 09, 2005 3:26 PM Subject: [LUTE] Cat gut > Dear Arthur, > > I understood that minikins were so called, because they came from > Munich. I'm afraid I can't remember the reference. Strings are > discussed in _Varietie_, where there is mention of Monnekin and > Mildorpe as being the best. Venice Catlines are also mentioned, but > no proper explanation is given for the term. > > There was a time when I found plausible the hypothesis that a > catline was the line or rope tied to the cat's head on a ship, > usually a lion's head. The catline had a special twist to make it > stretch when pulling the anchor. Lute catlines were so called > because they had a similar twist to those anchor ropes. I don't know > how this hypothesis was originally promulgated, but I would need > more persuasion now to be convinced of its veracity. > > In seeking further information, I had a quick glance at the Burwell > Lute Tutor. There we learn that lute strings were made from sheep > and cat gut. I give up. :-) > > Best wishes, > > Stewart. > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > >
