Word: loggerhead Part of Speech: noun Etymology: From logger (“(dialectal) heavy wooden block secured to a horse's leg to prevent it from straying”) + head. Logger was apparently coined because its sound connotes a clumsy, heavy object; compare log (“trunk of a dead tree; bulky piece of wood”). Pronunciation: /ˈlɒɡəhɛd/, /ˈlɔɡɚˌhɛd/, /ˈlɑ-/ 1. A stupid person; a blockhead, a dolt. Labels: obsolete Example: Ah, you whoreſon loggerhead, you were borne to do me ſhame. Example: [Y]ou in the mean time, you ſilly Logerhead, deſerve to have your Bones well-thraſh'd with a Fool's ſtaff, for thinking to ſtir up Kings and Princes to War by ſuch Childiſh Arguments. 2. A metal tool consisting of a long rod with a bulbous end that is made hot in a fire, then plunged into some material (such as pitch or a liquid) to melt or heat it. Example: Stalleen Station. Four new sets of hand-rails, one new foot-board, and one new sluice have been put on. A new balance beam has been put on the guard lock, and the sluices, bearing irons, and loggerheads secured. The other works are in good order. Example: These were the two invalids in the starboard sick-berth, whom Padeen had been sitting with. They had been sparring, in a spirit of fun, with loggerheads, those massy iron balls with long handles to be carried red-hot from the fire and plunged into buckets of tar or pitch so that the substance might be melted with no risk of flame. 3. A post on a whaling boat used to secure the harpoon rope. Example: Not very far distant Flask's boat was also lying breathlessly still; its commander recklessly standing upon the top of the loggerhead, a stout sort of post rooted in the keel, and rising some two feet above the level of the stern platform. It is used for catching turns with the whale line. Its top is not more spacious than the palm of a man's hand, and standing upon such a base as that, Flask seemed perched at the mast-head of some ship which had sunk to all but her trucks. But little King-Post was small and short, and at the same time little King-Post was full of a large and tall ambition, so that this loggerhead stand-point of his did by no means satisfy King-Post. 4. A thistle-like flowering plant of the genus Centaurea, particularly the common knapweed (Centaurea nigra). Labels: Midlands, dialectal, in-plural, often Example: Loggerheads, from the resemblance of its knobbed involucres to a weapon so called, consisting of a ball of iron at the end of a stick, the knapweed, the Clobbewed of old MSS. Centaurea nigra, L. Example: Bolwes, loggerheads, centaurea nigra. […] Bolwes is balls, the hard round heads of the wort. Loggerheads is a name I have often heard in Oxfordshire. 5. Used as the name of various animals with large heads. Example: But here is a ſpecies of ducks, called the loggerhead, from its large head. They have ſhort wings, are unable to fly, and only ſwim and flap along on the water at an extraordinary rate. Example: A ſpecies of duck, as large as a gooſe, and called the loggerhead duck at the Falkland Iſlands, is here met with, which beats the water with its wings and feet, and runs along the ſea with inconceivable velocity; […] 6. Used as the name of various animals with large heads. Example: [E]arly in the season, a pair of Loggerheads, Tyrannus caudifasciatus, appropriated the same tree to themselves, and commenced constructing their nest. The Mocking birds were seen constantly in the square, but never interrupted or interfered with them until they had nearly completed the nest; they then drove away the Loggerheads, took possession of it, added a few sticks to the outwork, laid the eggs and hatched the young brood. The poor Loggerheads hovered about the place in great distress for a few days, but never attempted to regain possession of their property. 7. Used as the name of various animals with large heads. Example: Myiarchus validus, Cab. (Tyrannus crinitus, Gosse.)—The Red Petchary of the South and the Red Loggerhead of the mountains and Western districts agrees with the common Loggerhead in its general habits, except that of association; it is always found solitary, or in pairs; […] 8. Used as the name of various animals with large heads. Example: […] I have received here also one of the parent birds, and in this instance I have been again surprised to learn that it is the Loggerhead, and not borealis or excubitoroides, that is the species referred to. […] So that we have in all ten well-authenticated instances of the Loggerhead breeding in the very heart of two of the most northerly of the New England States. 9. Used as the name of various animals with large heads. Example: Sternotherus minor (Agassiz) / Loggerhead musk-turtle / […] Most numerous in large calcareous springs, where they may be seen at night wandering around on the bottom, especially about piles of debris. Example: The loggerhead (S[ternotherus] m[inor] minor) and stripe-necked (S. m. peltifer) musk turtles represent two distinct subspecies of a species with a tan to brown carapace with black streaking and overlapping scutes down the center of the carapace. […] The head of old loggerhead musk turtles becomes disproportionately enlarged, as does the front half of the entire shell. 10. Used as the name of various animals with large heads. Example: The Loggerhead is ſo called from the largeneſs of its head, which is much bigger in proportion than that of other kinds. The fleſh of this alſo is very rank, and not eaten but in caſe of neceſſity. Example: [O]ur boat was hoisted out, and a loggerhead turtle struck as it was sleeping on the surface of the water. […] Dr. Patrick Browne, in his Natural History of Jamaica, mentions the hawksbill, the green turtle, and the loggerhead only. […] The loggerhead from which his description was taken was caught near the Western Islands, many leagues out at sea. 11. the head of a leopard, as commonly seen on the flag of Shropshire Labels: Shropshire