Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Gargoyle |
GargoyleNoun1. A spout that terminates in a grotesquely carved figure of a person or animal. 2. An ornament consisting of a grotesquely carved figure of a person or animal. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "gargoyle" was first used: 1286. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Satire | GARGOYLE, n. A rain-spout projecting from the eaves of mediaeval buildings, commonly fashioned into a grotesque caricature of some personal enemy of the architect or owner of the building. This was especially the case in churches and ecclesiastical structures generally, in which the gargoyles presented a perfect rogues' gallery of local heretics and controversialists. Sometimes when a new dean and chapter were installed the old gargoyles were removed and others substituted having a closer relation to the private animosities of the new incumbents. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Computing | Gargoyle A language for compiler writing. [J.V. Garwick, CACM 7(1):16-20, (Jan 1964)]. (1994-11-04). Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Gargoyles, or gurgoyles (from the French gargouille, originally the throat or gullet, cf. Latin gurgulio, gula, and similar words derived from root gar, to swallow, the word representing the gurgling sound of water; Ital. doccia di grande; Ger. Ausguss), in architecture, the carved termination to a spout which conveys away the water from the gutters. Gargoyles are mostly grotesque figures. The term is applied more especially to medieval work, but throughout all ages some means of throwing the water off the roofs, when not conveyed in gutters, has been adopted, and in Egypt there are gargoyles to eject the water used in the washing of the sacred vessels which would seem to have been done on the flat roofs of the temples. In Greek temples, the water from the roof passed through the mouths of lions whose heads were carved or modelled in the marble or terra cotta cymatium of the cornice. At Pompeii large numbers of terra cotta gargoyles have been found which were modelled in the shape of various animals. Gargoyle-like are popular sales items and have featured in several fantasy novels, such as the Discworld series. They were also featured in a Disney series, Gargoyles.
mainly based on an article from 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
External link
- http://www.stratis.demon.co.uk/gargoyles/gargoyle.htm
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Gargoyle."
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Conduit | Noun: conduit, channel, duct, watercourse, race; head race, tail race; abito, aboideau, aboiteau, bito; acequia, acequiador, acequiamadre; arroyo; adit, aqueduct, canal, trough, gutter, pantile; flume, ingate, runner; lock-weir, tedge; vena; dike, main, gully, moat, ditch, drain, sewer, culvert, cloaca, sough, kennel, siphon; piscina; pipe. (tube); funnel; tunnel. (passage); water pipe, waste pipe; emunctory, gully hole, artery, aorta, pore, spout, scupper; adjutage, ajutage; hose; gargoyle; gurgoyle; penstock, weir; flood gate, water gate; sluice, lock, valve; rose; waterworks. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Gargoyle |
| English words defined with "gargoyle": Gargyle, Gurgoyle. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "gargoyle": Gargil. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Incidentally, I've taken your little wisecracks for a few years now, you hideous gargoyle, and if you ever open that gateway to hell you call a mouth in my direction again, I'll snap off your extremities like dead branches and feed them to you at gunpoint (Cheers; writing credit: Isaac Cronin; Wayne Wang) Yes, almost as tragic as Archbishop Bertum being struck by a falling gargoyle while swimming off Beachy Head (The Black Adder; writing credit: Richard Curtis; Rowan Atkinson) | |
Tongue Twisters | Girl gargoyle, guy gargoyle. (references; author: unknown) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
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Theater & Movies | |||
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
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| "Gargoyle & ivy" by Tara Lyn Commentary: "This is on a wall right next to my office building. The walll belongs to a portion of a stable from the 1880's that is now covered with ivy. I would love to know how you use the image." | "Dave the Gargoyle" by Victoria Clare Commentary: "Dave at the bottom of the garden." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| "Gargoyle" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 90.91% of the time. "Gargoyle" is used about 33 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 90.91% | 30 | 63,341 |
| Noun (proper) | 9.09% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Total | 100.00% | 33 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "gargoyle": gargoyle-like, gargoyle-ventilated. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
gargoyle | 2,245 | gargoyle porn | 18 |
gargoyle sun glasses | 516 | gargoyle nude | 17 |
tattoo gargoyle | 174 | gargoyle wallpaper | 16 |
gargoyle picture | 133 | fountain gargoyle | 15 |
gargoyle statue | 97 | gargoyle eyewear | 15 |
stone gargoyle | 54 | gargoyle legend sun glasses | 14 |
gargoyle pic | 51 | gargoyle movie | 14 |
fan fiction gargoyle | 44 | gargoyle photo | 14 |
cartoon gargoyle | 44 | gothic gargoyle | 13 |
drawing gargoyle | 43 | notre dame gargoyle | 13 |
gargoyle art | 41 | gargoyle garden statue | 12 |
disneys gargoyle | 39 | gargoyle quest | 10 |
gargoyle history | 31 | gargoyle art work | 10 |
gargoyle show tv | 29 | gargoyle saga | 10 |
gargoyle image | 29 | gargoyle statuary | 10 |
gargoyle hentai | 28 | fan gargoyle site web | 10 |
disney gargoyle | 28 | gargoyle sketch | 10 |
gargoyle sculpture | 24 | gargoyle inc | 9 |
gargoyle glasses | 23 | gargoyle pewter | 9 |
garden gargoyle | 21 | fan fic gargoyle | 9 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "gargoyle"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | kokë ulluku. (various references) | |
Arabic | مرزاب (eaves), تمثال أو شخص بشع الوجه, الكرغل ميزاب ناتئ. (various references) | |
French | gargouille. (various references) | |
German | wasserspeier (water shoot, waterspout). (various references) | |
Greek | άγαλμα χρησιμεύων ωσ κρήνη, άγαλμα (sculpture, statue). (various references) | |
Hebrew | פסל מפלצת. (various references) | |
Hungarian | vízköpő (drip, rain-water spout, spout). (various references) | |
Italian | grondone, doccione (water shoot, waterspout). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 鬼瓦 (one's wife, ridge-end tile, tile with the figure of a devil), カ行 (Classification for Japanese verb with the dictionary form ending in "ku", garter, gauze, girth control). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | おにがわら (one's wife, ridge-end tile, tile with the figure of a devil), ガーゴイル . (various references) | |
Manx | kione bugganeagh. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | argoylegay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | goteira (drip, eaves, label, larmier, leak, spile, spout, vale), gárgula (spout), carranca (frown, scowl). (various references) | |
Russian | горгулья. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | ukras sa grotesknim likom. (various references) | |
Spanish | gárgola. (various references) | |
Swedish | person med groteskt ansikte. (various references) | |
Turkish | yaratık şeklinde heykelcik (gargoel), canavar tipli kimse (gargoel), çirkin yaratık (beast, gargoel). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Old French | 900-1400 | gargouille. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "gargoyle": gargoyled, gargoyles. (additional references) | |
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"Gargoyle" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Gargellen, gargiolli, gargoile, gargole, gargoyal, gargoyale, gargoyie, gargoyl, gargoyled, Garmoyle, Garrould, giroflee, Giurgola. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-g-g-l-o-r-y" | |
-1 letter: greylag. | |
-2 letters: argyle, galore, gaoler, gargle, lagger, logger, raggle. | |
-3 letters: agger, aggro, agley, algor, argle, argol, early, eggar, gager, gayer, glare, glary, glory, goral, gorge, grego, gyral, lager, large, largo, layer, leary, leggy, loggy, ogler, raggy, regal, relay, royal, yager. | |
-4 letters: aero, aery, ager, agly, agog, aloe, aryl, earl, egal, eggy, ergo, eyra, gage. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-e-g-g-l-o-r-y" | |
+1 letter: gargoyled, gargoyles. | |
+3 letters: gallerygoer. | |
+4 letters: gallerygoers, gregariously. | |
+5 letters: encouragingly, laryngologies. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Images: Digital Art 7. Usage Frequency 8. Expressions | 9. Expressions: Internet 10. Translations: Modern 11. Translations: Ancient 12. Derivations | 13. Anagrams 14. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
