On Sat, 02 Apr 2005 03:15:47 GMT, Peggie Hall
wrote:

Brian Whatcott wrote:

"Heads" for pooping in are often plural: the heads of small barrels
or buckets can also be plural, but the head of a vessel is invariably
singular, is it not?

Today we tend to think of the head as just one device...two heads as two
devices. But that wasn't always true. So I think you're confusing the
multiple holes in the board mounted on the the head of the ship with
multiple toilets--multiple separate devices. Think instead in terms of
an outhouse...it may be a 2-, 3- or even 4-holer...but it's still just
one (singular) outhouse. So too was the board with multiple holes
mounted on the bow--or at the head of--the ship.

Btw...Sir Thomas Crapper didn't invent the flush toilet, either.


Ah, you can support the connection between ship's head and
sanitary head, because, in your view, there is not properly a plural
sanitary term in nautical use: "heads"

Got it!

:-)

Brian Whatcott Altus, OK