spaniel

See also: Spaniel, spaniël, spániel, and španiel

English

Etymology

From Middle English spaynol, from Old French espaigneul (modern French épagneul), from Old Occitan espaignol, from Vulgar Latin *Hispāniolus (“Spanish”), from Hispānia (“Spain”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈspænjəl/
(obsolete) IPA^(key): /ˈspænəl/
Audio (Berkshire, UK) (file)
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.
- c. 1590–1591, William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act IV, scene ii], page 33, column 1:
  Pro[theus]. […] Yet (Spaniel-like) the more ſhe ſpurnes my loue, / The more it growes, and fawneth on her ſtill;

Derived terms

Clumber spaniel
cocker spaniel
field spaniel
German Spaniel
King Charles spaniel
springer spaniel
Sussex spaniel
water spaniel
Welsh springer spaniel

Descendants

→ Dutch: spaniël

Translations

dog breed

Afrikaans: patryshond
Bulgarian: шпаньол m (španjol)
Czech: španěl m
Dutch: spaniël (nl) m
Finnish: spanieli (fi)
French: épagneul (fr) m
German: Spaniel m
Hungarian: spániel (hu)
Ido: spanielo (io)
Irish: spáinnéar m
Italian: spaniel m
Japanese: スパニエル (ja) (supanieru)
Latvian: spaniels m
Lithuanian: spanielis m
Malay: spaniel
Navajo: łééchąąʼí bijaashtélí
Norman: bâsset m
Polish: spaniel (pl) m, spanielka (pl) f
Portuguese: spaniel m
Russian: спание́ль (ru) m (spanijélʹ)
Scottish Gaelic: cù-eunaich m
Slovak: španiel m
Slovene: španjel m
Spanish: perro de aguas m
Swedish: spaniel (sv) c
Thai: สเปเนียล
Turkish: spanyel
Welsh: sbaengi m, adargi m

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.
- c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
  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.

Anagrams

Espinal, Lapines, Nepalis, Spinale, alpines, pin seal, pineals, pinseal, pleasin', splenia

Portuguese

Noun

spaniel m (plural spaniels)

spaniel (any of several dog breeds bred to flush out game)

Spanish

Noun

spaniel m (plural spaniels or spaniel)

a spaniel

Swedish

Noun

spaniel c

A spaniel.

Anagrams

apelsin, spela in