I leave a one-word note for myself with the oral inhalant I take each morning. The word is "gargle" because I'd read it was good to cleanse after breathing in the medicine. Peculiarly this morning I asked myself how a New Yawker might say the word "gargle": "gargoil," I figured.
THEN I wondered, "Is there any connection between "gargle" and "gargoyle"? NO, I was sure; but I'll look it up.
YES! Both the sputtering we do in our throats with liquid to freshen or medicate and the grotesque faces and figures projecting from gutters of buildings, especially in Gothic architecture, acting as spouts to drain rainwater!, have exactly the same root, a root that means "throat" in several languages.
From Old French, back to Latin and Greek, and forward to English too, the root is imitative in origin. The semi-"gagging" and liquid "gurgling" (imitative also) are what's happening with both "gargoyles" and "gargling."
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Ive found it almost beyond scary and odd, that some of the most beautiful cathedrals in the world have the almost demonic gargoyles of granite adorning the facades of God's house. Why is that?
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