hi does anyone know what the proper or other word for a ships figure head(the statue usually on the front of old ships) is?
Unless I am misunderstanding you, I think the proper word is ‘figurehead’ (all one word, not ‘figure head’).
Oddly enough, it’s figurehead.
From Merriam-Webster:
Main Entry: fig·ure·head
Pronunciation: 'fi-g(y)&r-"hed
Function: noun
1 : the figure on a ship’s bow
2 : a head or chief in name only
There may be some more obscure names for it, but that’s the most common one in English.
They are also called Billetheads and Catheads depending on the vessel and period from which it came. See Here
Mounted beneath the bowsprit.
the other word im looking for might be greek or roman i think they mentioned it in the simbad movie
Which Sinbad movie? The Harryhausen masterpiece?
If you are thinking of Harryhausen, the one with the figurehead (through which the Goddess Hera communicated) was Jason and the Argonauts.
Well, a cathead was the wooden support etending out from the side of the ship from which an anchor was hung alongside the bow and, as far as I recall, a billethead was an extension of the keel for a ship’s boat (as a whaleboat) that projected above the bulwarks at bow and stern. I believe that some catheads may have had faces carved in the ends, but it was not a common practice and it would not really count as a figurehead. I suppose some people might have carved figures in billetheads, making them resemble miniature Viking longships, but I have never seen an example of that.
However, that does bring us back to the OP: in some 20th century literature, there are references to the Viking longships being called dragons because of the dragon head carvings of the stemposts (with tails on the sternposts). (I have not discovered whether actual Vikings used that terminology.)
Occasionally, I have seen the figurehead referred to as a mascot, but I do not think that that is a common usage. None of my “visual dictionaries” use any term other than figurehead. A number of seafaring cultures have painted eyes near the bows of their ships, but I have never heard of a special name, other than “eyes,” for that practice.
The Greeks were one of the cultures that used eyes, but since their warships were built with rams, neither they nor the Romans bothered to build figureheads that would be splintered as soon as battle was joined. The Romans had larger freighters, but while I recall sternposts extended to become swan haeds, I do not recall any figureheads. (A feature on many European sailing ships was the beakshead, but that was not a carving but a small platform extending out beneath the bowsprit that permitted the crew to stand and perform maintenance on the forward structure of the ship. Seats were pierced in it to allow the crew to sit down for toilet functions (where the waves would wash away their shit) and the term was shortened to “head” for a naval toilet.)
hmmm i checked all that myslef too and came up blank,but several people i spoke too recall a second word for it but cant think of what it could be