# spaniel
## 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: /ˈspænjəl/
* (obsolete) IPA: /ˈspænəl/
* Audio (Southern England):(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 (date written), 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, [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
* Irish water spaniel
* King Charles spaniel
* Norfolk spaniel
* springer spaniel
* Sussex spaniel
* water spaniel
* Welsh springer spaniel

#### Descendants

* → Dutch: spaniël

#### Translations
### 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 (date written), 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, (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