A few stolen minutes out of your day to talk words and communication, because our daily lives are surrounded by the evolution and influence of words. Forget the grammar police. There is so much more to this conversation.
Episode #39 – “Gargoyle” Origin Stories & the Latest in Words You Should Know
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Approximate transcript:
Welcome to episode number 39, where we’ll dive into the etymology and origin stories of gargoyles.
Why gargoyles? Well, beyond the opportunity to talk onomatopoeia and story characters turned architectural staples, sometimes it’s fun to just close my eyes, open a word origin dictionary, and put my finger down on a random page. Seriously. Hello, gargoyles. But things happen for a reason, folks. I’ll get to that in a moment.
First, here’s…
The Latest in Word, Language & Writing News
Bestselling author Stephen King took to Twitter last weekend asking for some grammar help. Anyone who has ever felt high and mighty about grammar, please take note. Everyone, yes, everyone has moments to pause and think things out. When someone like Stephen King does so in a public medium such as Twitter, I’m just delighted by it.
What started as a statement about the joy of movies including tap dancing led to an intense debate of whether his sentence should be “What America needs are more tap-dancing movies” or “What America needs is more tap-dancing movies.” And the grammarists, grammaristas, and grammarians of Twitter were off, including editors from prominent publishers. What would you say? Check out my show notes for more details on the debate!
Since we started with a novelist, I’ll also add today that The New York Times recently published an article titled, “Still Stuck at Home? It Might Be Time to Work on That Novel.” Brilliant idea? I’d argue so if you ever felt so inclined.
Though, perhaps I should end this news section with the recent discovery and sharing of Douglas Adams’s note to himself:
“Writing isn’t so bad really when you get through the worry. Forget about the worry, just press on. Don’t be embarrassed about the bad bits. Don’t strain at them…. Writing can be good. You attack it, don’t let it attack you.”
Yep, even the famed author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy had struggles with storytelling and the written word. Take heart if you ever have those moments!
There’s so much more writing and communications news to share, like the fact that a company called “Hugging Face” recently raised $40 million dollars for its natural language processing library, but we’ll jump back into that merging of language and technology in a future episode.
English Language History & Trivia
Today, we’re not talking tech. Today, we’re talking myth, fables, legends, paganism … well, kind of. Today, in short, we’re talking about “gargoyles.”
What’s the origin of the word “gargoyle”?
Who are these guys and where did they come from in terms of story history?
Fantasy readers, this episode might just be dedicated to you.
Ready for this? I feel like this is where you shout “arg!” or something, but I think that’s more pirate than gargoyle. What does a gargoyle say? Maybe something profound, but I’ll leave that up to you.
Let’s begin with the word “gargoyle,” and it’s base “garg-,” which seems to be little more than an imitation of a sound you might make in your throat. Awkward swallow. Gag. I don’t know how to make the right noise into the mic, but you get the idea. The words “gargle,” “gurgle,” and “regurgitate,” all come from the same onomatopoetic root. And if you’re curious, the word “poetic” is hiding inside of “onomatopoetic.” Don’t you love that? I had to bring in poetry, folks. We’re talking bodily sounds here.
So “gargoyle” comes from throat sounds, which moved through Greek and Latin, eventually to Old French, where we had the word gargouille, meaning throat. Its this Old French word which took on the meaning of creatures used in drainage systems, where the water would flow through their throats.
Not all gargoyles on churches and other grand buildings serve this function today, of course, but since the thirteenth century, many gargoyles have preserved the stone walls of structures by diverting the water away with their own grotesque style.
Now structures that have diverted water through a creature’s mouth of some sort was not an idea original to France in the thirteenth century when “gargoyles,” as we might now know them, first came to be. The Egyptians had lion heads that had the same functions on buildings, and similar lion head water spouts even appeared on the temple of Zeus in Olympia, Greece.
But—and here’s where the myth comes in—also in the thirteenth century in France, there was a legend, the legend of the man who would become St. Romanus, who slayed a fire-breathing, water-spitting dragon to save his people, cutting off his head and neck and attaching it to a church. Now this dragon, according to legend, had great bat-like wings, a long neck, and a mouth that snapped shut with a sound like the clap of a guillotine. All the stories seem to mention this sound like a guillotine, which I find particularly interesting because guillotines wouldn’t be invented for another several-hundred years; however, similar devices were referenced in literature, so we’ll let that slide in contemporary retellings.
According to some traditions, stone gargoyles were representations of demons that one were to avoid by coming into the church (evil outside the walls; holy inside the walls); some sources argue that every holy symbol inside of a church can be balanced with a symbol of evil outside of the church to remind the people of the narrow path they need to tread to lead a good life; some say that gargoyles were displayed to attract pagans to the church. I do love the rabbit holes you can fall down when it comes to stories. I also love that decorative, non-water-spout gargoyles in Somerset, England are called “hunky punks.”
There are so many fantastic creatures across cultures and across time, but gargoyles are one of the few stories that have become architectural traditions as well. What’s your favorite mythical creature? And do you know it’s origin story? As always, contact me if you’d like to share what you know.
Language Challenge
For today’s language challenge, since we’re talking fantasy creatures, let’s keep going in this vein. Do you know the difference between a “maze” and a “labyrinth”? They aren’t actually synonyms.
What do you think? Do you know why?
The answers, as always, can be found on my website, at GetAGripOnYourGrammar.com
Personal Update:
Here’s where the gargoyles, creatures with so many stories surrounding them, come full circle.
I have been doing some deep research into the nature of stories lately, why certain tales take hold of us, why certain ideas become a part of the cultural zeitgeist, and what the effects of these stories are on us over time. Everywhere we turn, we hear stories in one form or another these days, right? And may I just say that while I am certainly aching for past days where I’ve been able to put on white gloves and go into dusty library archives, the simple nature of pursuing curiosity with an academic’s eye is filling my soul at the moment. It’s good to tackle projects that fill your soul when you can. More on this soon.
What’s filling your soul these days, folks? Great stories? The pursuit of writing? The pursuit of happiness or the happiness of pursuit? Whatever you’re up to, keep at it. I’ll have more words you should know for you next time.
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Words. Language. Communications. We’ve got this.