spaniel
See also: Spaniel
English
Etymology
Borrowed from Old French espaigneul (modern French épagneul), from Old Occitan espaignol, from Vulgar Latin *Hispāniolus (“Spanish”), from Hispānia (“Spain”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈspænjəl/
- Rhymes: -ænjəl
Noun
spaniel (plural spaniels)
- Any of various small to medium-sized breeds of gun dog having a broad muzzle, long, wavy fur and long ears that hang at the side of the head, bred for flushing and retrieving game.
- A cringing, fawning person.
- 1595: Shakespeare, William, The Two Gentlemen of Verona Act IV, Scene II
- Proteus: Yet, spaniel-like, the more she spurns my love,/The more it grows and fawneth on her still.
- 1595: Shakespeare, William, The Two Gentlemen of Verona Act IV, Scene II
Derived terms
Derived terms
- cocker spaniel
- field spaniel
Translations
dog
Verb
spaniel (third-person singular simple present spaniels, present participle spanielling or spanieling, simple past and past participle spanielled or spanieled)
- To follow loyally or obsequiously, like a spaniel.
- 1606: Shakespeare, William, The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra
- Antony: Do we shake hands.—All come to this!—The hearts / That spaniel'd me at heels, to whom I gave / Their wishes, do discandy, melt their sweets
- J. Sedgewick (1840) Timon, but not of Athens, page 200: “Always spanielling at the heels of power, the mitred Dignitaries displayed, from first to last, the most rancorous hostility against her.”
- David S. Bell (2000) Presidential Power in Fifth Republic France, →ISBN, page 30: “Hence Duverger's famous question about de Gaulle's first spanielling Prime Minister makes political ('M. Debré, existe-t-il?'), but not constitutional sense.”
- Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn (2003) The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, →ISBN, page 65:
- The genre which differed from the world in order to advocate a better one - or the genre which spanielled at heel the sensationalist virtual reality world we will now arguably inhabit till the planet dies - had become by 2000, in triumpth or defeat or both, an institution for the telling of story.
- 1606: Shakespeare, William, The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra
Portuguese
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.