I submit that the original poster asked, "I am trying to think of the
term used to describe the ornate sterns of
ships such as the HMS Victory, with the windows and the gold
scrollwork, etc." He was NOT looking for something to describe the
top rail.

Thus, according to this current post, "Yes, tafereel translate to "
picture, scene, description" in modern
Dutch, ", shows its descendancy.

I believe that my comment that Taffrail was the correct term is
correct. The sterns of ships were pictures or scenes, just as you
would suspect. The more modern use of the word in marine environment
is for the upper rail. BUT that is not what the poster asked for.
He asked for the term to describe the ornate sterns of the ships and
Taffrail is that term. AND, Gingerbread is definitely NOT.




On Jan 4, 6:56*am, brian whatcott wrote:
Richard van den Berg wrote:



On Sun, 03 Jan 2010 07:57:22 +0700 Bruce In Bangkok
) wrote:
First you state that taffrail comes from the Dutch word for an ornate
stern of a ship and then you state that it comes from the word that
specifically refers to an ornately decorated stern rail.

I don't think you can have it both ways. Either the term applies to a
stern or a rail.

The closest word in Dutch might be "tafel" - which means table.
Gebeeldhouwd means carved and a carved railing would be gebeeldhouwd
hekwerk.

Taffrail sounds also very much like "tafereel" and guess what Google
gave with "taffrail tafereel":http://www.dictionary.net/taffrail

Ha! Bruce has many fine qualities, among which, the ready acceptance of
a better answer than the one on which he has settled, does not show up.
* He will continue to argue the merits to unusual lengths. Watch!

Brian W