gargoyle

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English

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WOTD – 24 April 2010
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Gargoyles (spouts) at Amiens Cathedral.

Etymology

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From Old French gargouille, from Latin, and native Old English swillan (“to gargle”), from Proto-West Germanic *swilljan, from Proto-Germanic *swiljaną (“to gulp, swallow”), from Proto-Indo-European *swel- (“to drink, gulp, swallow”). Doublet of gargle. The Académie Française suggests the first attestation as gargoule in 1294.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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gargoyle (plural gargoyles)

  1. A carved grotesque figure on a spout which conveys water away from the gutters.
    • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
      As we went, however, I took the precaution of noting our route as well as I could; and this was not so very difficult, owing to the extraordinary and most fantastic shape of the rocks that were strewn about, many of which in that dim light looked more like the grim faces carven upon mediæval gargoyles than ordinary boulders.
    • 1906, Rafael Sabatini, The Trampling of the Lilies, page 110:
      From between set teeth came now a flow of oaths and imprecations as steady as the flow of water from the gargoyle overhead.
  2. Any decorative carved grotesque figure on a building.
    • 1952 February, R. A. H. Weight, “A Railway Recorder in Wessex”, in Railway Magazine, page 131:
      The long-closed G.W.R. station alongside has a decidedly derelict-looking frontage, with eight gargoyles or figureheads still clinging to the portico.
  3. A fictional winged monster.
    • 2005, Mel Odom, The Secret Explodes, page 200:
      Almost immediately one of the gargoyles swept down from the sky and attacked him. The gargoyle's momentum drove them both over the side.
  4. (derogatory) An ugly woman.
    • 2011, Emma Donoghue, Life Mask:
      Above all, in what reckless moment had she encouraged that person and her gargoyle of a mother to move to Mayfair, and set up house around the corner?

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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