Rather than the sound of water, it seems to refer to the throat of the statue through which water passes, which sounds like gargle in several languages. Several sites say it’s an onomatopoeia for the statue gargling water but I can’t find that reference specifically, except that the root words for gargle from Latin might be an onomatopoeia for the sound of gargling.
If the statue is purely ornamental without the function for water to pass through it, it’s called a grotesque, chimera, or boss, so obviously I’m going to call them all bosses now.
Etymology of the word gargoyle, for anyone else who read the linked list in its entirety and found that gargoyle is not on it:
https://www.etymonline.com/word/gargoyle
Rather than the sound of water, it seems to refer to the throat of the statue through which water passes, which sounds like gargle in several languages. Several sites say it’s an onomatopoeia for the statue gargling water but I can’t find that reference specifically, except that the root words for gargle from Latin might be an onomatopoeia for the sound of gargling.
If the statue is purely ornamental without the function for water to pass through it, it’s called a grotesque, chimera, or boss, so obviously I’m going to call them all bosses now.
Garganta means throat in Spanish, so I’ve learnt something about the origins of that word now :)