spaniel

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English spaynel,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French espaignol (“Spanish, Spaniard, Spanish dog”),^[5][6][4][7] also espaigneul,^[5][8][2][9] now épagneul,^[8][10] literally "Spanish (dog)".^[11][2][9] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from the third quarter of the 12th century, for both a Spaniard and a Spanish dog.^[7] The French word comes from Vulgar Latin *Hispāniōlus (“of Spain”),^[6][11][2] a diminutive of Latin Hispānus (“Spanish”),^[11][2] from Hispānia (“Spain”).^[6][8][10] Merriam-Webster Unabridged instead takes the French word through Old Occitan espanhol from Old Italian spagnuolo,^[3] and Collins also passes it through Old Provençal.^[12] The breed was thought to be of Spanish origin;^[11][13] Etymonline notes that this is uncertain.^[11] In Middle English Spaynel also meant a Spaniard, recorded as a surname in 1275^[2][11] and as a noun from before 1387 to 1500, in Trevisa.^[5] The OED compares Middle Dutch spanjoel.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A dog with drooping ears and a long silky coat: about 1386, in Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Prologue.^[5][14] Barnhart dates the form spaynel to about 1350.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Spaniels were used to start game.^[11] From 1576 the word was combined with other words to name breeds, as in English spaniel or King Charles spaniel.^[5] Because of the dog's reputation for docile, devoted behaviour,^[11][15] the word came to be used of people: from 1562 of someone who pries into or searches out a matter, then, from 1598, of a submissive, fawning person.^[5][10] It was used as an adjective, "fawning", from 1606,^[5][15] as in Shakespeare's "base spaniel fawning" in Julius Caesar,^[10] and as a verb, to act like a spaniel, to be servile, from 1599.^[5][11] Johnson (1755) described the dog as noted for sagacity and obedience.^[16] The Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins notes that the adjective survives mainly in spaniel eyes, from the mid-20th century.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1386 – a dog of the spaniel kind.^[5]
• 1562 – figuratively, one who pries into something.^[5]
• 1576 – in breed names such as English spaniel.^[5]
• 1598 – a submissive, fawning person.^[5]
• 1599 – verb, to act like a spaniel, to be servile.^[5]
• 1606 – adjective, fawning, cringing.^[5]
• 1812 – verb, to follow or fawn on someone like a spaniel.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A dog of any of several breeds of small or medium size with long, wavy or silky hair and large drooping ears, many of them bred as gundogs: Our spaniel flushed a pheasant from the hedge.^[12][3][5]
2. A person who is obsequiously devoted to another; a fawning, servile person.^[12][3][5]

Verb

1. To behave like a spaniel; to fawn or be servile.^[5][10]
2. To follow someone fawningly, like a spaniel.^[3][5]

Word family

• spaniellike
• Clumber spaniel
• cocker spaniel
• English toy spaniel
• field spaniel
• Irish water spaniel
• King Charles spaniel
• springer spaniel

Related words

• Spain
• Spaniard
• Spanish

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
14. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.