fiddlehead
nounUS /ˈfɪdəlˌhɛd/
Etymology From fiddle + head.
1
The scroll-shaped decoration at the tip of a fiddle.
2
A similar scroll-shaped ornament on a ship's bow.
- Such a ship as the Rose of Devon frigate, standing out for the open sea, is a sight the world no longer affords. Those ships are “gone, gone, gone with lost Atlantis.” Their lofty poops, their little bonaventure masts, their lateen sails aft, their high forecastles and tall bowsprits with the square spritsail flaunted before the fiddlehead, came down from an even earlier day1923, Charles Boardman Hawes, The Dark Frigate, Chapter 6:
3
The furled fronds of a young fern, sometimes harvested for food consumption.
- Related terms
- fiddleback, fiddleneck, filicoid, filicology