Curio
Today

gargoyle

GAHR-goyl · noun

LatinOld FrenchEnglish

Origin

From Old French gargouille, itself from Latin, with the earliest recorded French spelling, gargoule, dated to 1294.

Journey

The facts on hand don't trace a documented shift in meaning — only the path from Latin into Old French gargouille and then into English.

Related words

Gargoyle is a doublet of gargle, meaning the two words descend from the same root but arrived in English by different routes.

More words

From Old French

Nearby, A–Z

All words A–Z →