To gurgle is to make a bubbling, liquid sound, like water flowing over small rocks or liquid moving through a pipe. Babies are also said to gurgle when they make soft, happy throat noises.
Probably imitative in origin, formed to sound like the noise of liquid bubbling or flowing. It appears in English from the late 1400s.
Gurgle is sound turned into spelling: the word is basically a little stream running through your mouth. That’s why it works equally well for brooks, pipes, and happy babies experimenting with their voices.
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