poodle
POO-duhl · noun
GermanEnglish
Origin
From German Pudel, a shortened form of Pudelhund, a compound of Hund ("dog") and Pudel/Pūdel ("puddle"), itself from the onomatopoeic pudeln ("to splash about"). The noun sense is first attested in 1773.
This is Curio: one word's origin story, every morning. No feed, no backlog.
One short email each morning. Free; stop anytime. See a sample →
Journey
The word began as a name pointing to a splashy habit, then narrowed to mean a specific breed of dog. Later, a verb sense developed, referring to the look of a poodle's shaved legs, which show bare skin.
Related words
Pudel itself echoes pudeln, the German word for splashing about — the dog was literally named for making puddles.