Gargoyle and gargle are related because both trace back to old words connected with the throat and the sound of gurgling water. The connection may seem odd at first, but it makes sense once you know what a gargoyle originally was.
Today, many people use gargoyle for any carved monster on a building. More strictly, a gargoyle was a carved waterspout. Rainwater ran through it and poured out, often through the mouth. That flowing, throat like, gurgling image is part of the word’s history.
Gargle, meanwhile, still refers directly to the throat. When you gargle, you rinse liquid at the back of the throat and make a bubbling sound. So the two words meet in both sound and throat imagery.
- gargoyle: a projecting waterspout on a building
- gargle: to rinse the throat with a bubbling sound
- shared idea: throat sounds and gushing water
This is why the pair feels strange but is historically reasonable. One word stayed close to the act of throat rinsing, while the other moved into architecture.