Catenary

[Dr. Goodword]

• catenary •

Pronunciation: kæd-(ê)n-ery • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. The curve formed by a wire, rope, or chain hanging loosely between two points and forming a U-shape. 2. The wire, rope, or chain contained in a catenary.

Notes: Today's word may be used as an adjective; in fact, it started out its life as the adjective for Latin catena "chain; string, series of things". Today it has its own adjective, catenarian. The verb may be simply catenate, or we may say concatenate "link, string together in a series", using the Latinate prefix con- "(together) with".



In Play: Usually catenaries hang down: "A morning spiderweb filled with catenaries of dewdrops is a lovely sight, indeed." However, inverted catenaries are also possible: "While other architects busied themselves with straight lines and square corners, Antoni Gaudi played with arches based with inverted catenaries."

Word History: This word is an English modification of Latin catenarius "relating to a chain", from catena "chain, fetter, shackle", source also of Spanish cadena, Italian catena, and French chaine. Latin made its word out of PIE kat- "link or weave together; chain, net". We find Russian kota "fish trap, weir", perhaps Serbian kotar "district" from earlier "fence", Slovenian kotár "district, surroundings", and Old English heaðor "prison, confinement", all of which just might come from kat-. (Now we all should thank George Kovac, major contributor of unusual but useful Good Words like today's.)

[Slava]

I'm guessing that most of the lines of our spiderweb are catenaries, too, not just the dewdrops.

[George Kovac]

I encountered the word “catenary” at the current Jasper Johns exhibition at The Whitney Museum in NYC. In 1996, Johns created a series of 61 paintings using the catenary as a metaphor and the key visual element in the images. Several of the catenary paintings appear in the Whitney exhibit. Johns was in his late 60s when he conceived the catenary paintings—perhaps it was a metaphor for the arc of one’s life: suspended like a bridge between two endpoints. While the catenary paintings are fascinating and moody, Johns was a poor anticipator of his own endpoint. He is 91 years old today and still floruit: the most recent piece in the exhibition was painted in 2020. That is an inspiration to us all, to remain engaged and productive as we trace our own catenary to its end.

[bbeeton]

From my time as an applied math and engineering student, I understand the catenary to be the shape of an unloaded chain suspended from two rigid endpoints. So the separate strands of the spiderweb are loaded catenaries, and the dewdrops are the load. Other loaded catenaries are the suspension cables of some of our favorite bridges -- the Brooklyn Bridge (and its smaller, older, sibling in Cincinnati) and the Golden Gate Bridge (whose "official" color is, no kidding, international orange).

The term was allegedly coined by Thomas Jefferson.

Concatenation is an operation beloved of computer programmers and practitioners of linguistics.

[Debbymoge]

I plugged "floruit" into the search on the page here and found three uses of the word, all by George Kovac (today's discussion being the third).
The definition of the word seems clear from the context, but perhaps it would be a good word for the Good Doctor to work on for another posting?
Thank you, George. Interesting word!

[George Kovac]

Thanks, Debby, for that shout-out.

And thank you, bbeeton, for bringing “concatenation” into the conversation—what an interesting provenance it shares with “catenary”. Both derive from a word meaning “chain.” That is a metaphor that endures today with the same force as it must have had in the source languages from which both words descend. Today, even if we don’t use the word “concatenation,” we speak of “a chain of events” or “supply chains.”

I was aware that “concatenation” has an important and specialized meaning in computer programming. But I am more familiar with its metaphoric applications as in these examples (I just made them up, they are not quotes): “The outbreak of WWI was not inevitable. It was the product of a concatenation of diplomatic blunders, territorial opportunism, miscommunications, and a failure of vision and leadership by all the great powers.” Or this: “The crashes of the two 737 Max planes resulted from a concatenation of design errors, poor safety oversight, ill-considered cost-cutting and deficient pilot training.”

[Dr. Goodword]

Monika Freund came up with another use for catenary: jump ropes. They might be called 'catenary ropes' for they have to sag for kids to be able to jump them. As they go around they become 'inverted catenaries'.

Can any of you think of other uses for this word?

[Audiendus]

I plugged "floruit" into the search on the page here and found three uses of the word, all by George Kovac (today's discussion being the third).

'Floruit' is the past tense (he/she flourished). This particular instance refers to the present (he still...), so perhaps we should say floret (present tense).

[David Myer]

I may be mistaken, but here in Melbourne where we have a very extensive tram network, I have always called the mess of overhead lines - some of which carry power and others of which hold the power lines up and are connected to poles - a concatenary.

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[David Myer]

Incidentally, my school song included the words: Semper domus floreat...

I always assumed floreat was the present tense. A little research suggests it may mean: May the house always flourish. So that doesn't preclude floret. English is hard enough. I always struggled with Latin.

[Slava]

One could also go for 'a concatenation of catenaries.'

[Audiendus]

I always assumed floreat was the present tense. A little research suggests it may mean: May the house always flourish. So that doesn't preclude floret.

Yes, floreat is the present subjunctive (may he/she/it flourish). Floret is the present indicative (he/she/it flourishes or is flourishing).

Your picture of the overhead tram wires takes me back to my early childhood when London had trolleybuses. The last one ran in 1962.

[David Myer]

Thanks for the Latin clarification. And if I said Floreas to you would that be an injunction for you to flourish?

I too remember the London Trolley buses. I used to catch the 667 home from school as an unsupervised six year old. Wouldn't be allowed today. I remember well the time I watched one try to overtake another. The sparks and then the chaos were indeed spectacular. And the concatenary (if that is what it was called) was terribly ugly.

[Audiendus]

Thanks for the Latin clarification. And if I said Floreas to you would that be an injunction for you to flourish?

Yes indeed. Or you could use the imperative mood and say "Flore!"

[waseeley@gmail.com]

"Catenary arch" ceramic kilns are also an alternative to strait-walled "sprung arch kilns". The former require careful beveling of the bricks to align them with the outline traced on a template by hanging a chain between two supports; the latter requires welded braces and horizontal rods to hold the walls in place countering the outward force of the arch roof. "Flat top" kilns are an alternate to arched kilns, using vertically laid bricks hold together by corner clamps and long rods.