People who come into my office sometimes comment on the "gargoyles" I have on my bookshelf. (They sit alongside a few statues of various saints.) But I have to correct them. They aren't really gargoyles. They are grotesques. Gargoyles are grotesques - but of a specific kind. Gargoyles are waterspouts. They gargle - hence the name.
If it's not a waterspout, it 's a grotesque, which is derived from the Latin word grotto or "hidden place."
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