Page 33 - Frank Rosenow "Seagoing Knots"

KNOT NAMES AND

THEIR ORIGINS

The name of a knot is often an enigma well worth unraveling. You have the
square knot, which is named after a near physical parallel, as it is a square
knot. You have the identical reef knot, which is so called because it’s useful
in tying in a reef.

In Scandinavia, neither form is current. Rather, it is consistently called a
“rabandsknop.”
Ra stands for a yard aloft to which a square sail is bent.
Band means a strap.
Knop is an ancient Scandinavian word from which the English word
knot is derived.
So deciphered, you have a name descriptive of another long-established
use, that of securing a square sail to a yard by means of a strap or line.
In German, on the other hand, you have most commonly the name
“kreuzknoten” which like square knot reaches for a physical parallel,
though less successfully: Kreuz means cross.
Do not infer from this that nautical language is a Babel of tongues;
rather, it can be seafarers’ esperanto. Witness another descriptive phrase:

English Scandinavian German
Round turn Rundtorn Rundtom

It would be nice if all knot names were descriptive of origin and use, like
in the “studdingsail halyard bend,” a name which compresses all you
would ever want to know about the knot into three words. Or, if at least
the name conjured up a resemblance, as in the figure eight knot. Both
types of naming are useful, the first making you understand the knot and

the second helping you to remember it.

KNOT NAMES AND THEIR ORIGINS