A-H: "Middle English gargoile, from Old French gargole, gargouille, throat, waterspout." Gargle, gurgle, and gargoyle all seem to be related. Meyer-Lübke gives garga (onomatopoeic word) 'to gargle, gurgle'. Kluge suggests that German Gurgel was an early loanword from Latin gurgulio 'gullet, weasand, windpipe' (although it was also a slang term for penis). Weasand is a great word I hadn't run across before. Gullet is from Latin gula via French. So the meaning of gargoyle when the part to the whole.