I'm always suspect of those "word origins"


[Follow Ups] [Post Followup] [Dodge Power Wagon Forum]


Posted by Chriscase [76.221.177.103] on Monday, March 08, 2010 at 20:13:14 :

In Reply to: O.T. - a brain teaser for you smart guys...tow hook? posted by Doc Dave [66.82.9.74] on Monday, March 08, 2010 at 18:35:44 :

I can make up a better story :

The origin of the word, a contraction of the word 'tote', meaning to haul.

"Tow" was what a tow boat pulled. Mostly cotton bales, from the south, up the Missippi river. From there, we used the word 'Tow' to mean anything fleecy in bales.

So, a trip up the river used two "tow hooks". One was used by the stevedores, the hand held hook, to handle the bales. Lately came to be known as a 'hay hook'. Also named because it can be used to handle bags of grain, the bags being made from 'tow'.

The other 'toe hook' was on the end of the 'tow rope', the rope used on the gantry crane to load the bales of 'tow'.

And, since 'tow heads' have white hair, NOT golden blonde, they are named after the bollard on the back of the tow boat. Being a knob shape, and of a maritime nature, it is used as a sea gull perch. Ends up covered in white effluent, and, being as it is a head shaped knob to begin with, Tow Head became ta nick name for a white headed person. I ought to know, my nick name as a child was Whitey. No because of the color of my hair, but because I'm full of $nit.



Follow Ups:



Post a Followup

Name:
E-Mail:
Subject:
Message:
Optional Link
URL:
Title:
Optional Image Link
URL:


This board is powered by the Mr. Fong Device from Cyberarmy.com