beagle – English noun declension

English noun forms of beagle

Noun: beagle
Singularbeagle
Pluralbeagles

Sample Sentences

  • […]whereas burying a body in the wooded area beyond the backyard was the quickest way to make a Nassau County Police Department beagle look good. [2002, Susan Isaacs, Long Time No See, page 243:]

Etymology

1. Inherited from Middle English *begel (attested in the plural begles), of uncertain origin. Possibly from Middle French beegueule (“one who keeps their mouth open”), whence modern French bégueule (“a colloquial insult said to women of low status and accused of stupidity, who always have their mouths gaped or open; a prude”); from Old French beer, bayer (“to gape, gawk”) + Old French gueule (“gullet”). The modern French bigle (“beagle”) however is a borrowing from the English.
2. Alternatively, a modification of Middle English bedel (“beadle”) in the sense of "constable, detective". The change of /t/, /d/ to /k/, /ɡ/ before /l/ is common; compare hurkle, variant of hurtlen (“to hurtle”), and in Modern English, huckleberry, turkle (“turtle”), and stickle. See: Middle English Nouns 'bedel'.

Verbs referencing "beagle"

Dutch Nouns beagle, Finnish Nouns beagle.