reposted from
Google PlusBecause the name "Turk's Head" has always bothered me (if they wanted to be respectful, they probably would have gone with "turban" or something that didn't involve "head") I've been wanting to see if the Chinese naming offers anything less fraught. To get that, we need more consensus though, unless I'm just looking in the wrong place.
Starting with the usual authority, Lydia Chen, in
Chinese Knotting 3, she presents a 5B4L TH and a 6B5L TH, but considers them variants on the
double coin knot and so names them: 奇數圓複雙錢結 (even, round, complex, double coin knot) and 偶數圓複雙錢結 (odd, round, complex, double coin knot)... I dunno but ocean plait and prolong knots are double coin variants but definitely not TH, so this just muddies the waters.
Trying a few other TH instructions I've found, there's 笼目结 (which translates as "cage head knot" which is an obvious translation from turk's head. There's also "花股结" which is "flower strand/ply/stream knot" as well as "花箍結" which is "flower hoop/band knot" both of which sound like they're trying to address the flower-like appearance of the flat mat tightening as well as the hoop/band appearance of the cylinder tightening. I'd almost want to add in the ball/sphere to the works to get huā gū qi? ji?. 8-) Still that does not cover things like the cruciform TH or ... Of course, TH doesn't really handle those cases as such either... Flower-hoop knot? Flower-stream knot?
French? Spanish? Etc? Are they just translating "Turk's Head"?
Coming back to English and the definition of a TH there's cylindrical/tubular braid or woven ring. It's too bad "
manifold" does not more closely match the specifics of the situation, because I love the word.
Ah, but diving down the math side of things... how about "
Brunnian knots" ? Look at the pictures, it's so close!
Yah, I know, that would just add tons of confusion and noise to math concept searches... but that'd be good for them, and you too. 8-)