The Wooden Roots of Being at Loggerheads

Hello,

Today’s word is loggerheads. The expression to be at loggerheads with somebody, meaning that you disagree with them, dates back to the late 1600s. While nowadays the disagreement in question is likely to be verbal, at that point it could be physical too, perhaps involving a weapon.

During the 1600s a loggerhead was a thick-headed iron tool used in ship-building (perhaps swung at somebody if you were at loggerheads with them?), a type of cannon shot, a part of a whale-boat, and a type of turtle.

Cannon weren’t just loaded with cannon balls. In a pinch most things could be propelled by a cannon. There was bar shot – a set of short metal bars which would whirl out in flight and take down the rigging of the enemy’s ship and chain shot which worked in a similar way but would clear a deck of crew.

The logger part of the word is probably from the dialect meaning – a heavy block of wood, sometimes used to slow down a horse and stop it wandering away. Of course wood and logs are closely related.

If somebody had a wooden head they would be seen as not very bright and sure enough the original use of loggerhead in the late 1500s was to describe a stupid person. This means that if two people are at loggerheads neither have much intellect or they’re swinging heavy wooden tools at each other – again not a smart move.

Until next time happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,

Grace (@Wordfoolery)

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