History
The origin of the word spaniel is described by the Oxford English Dictionary as coming from the Old French word espaigneul which meant "Spanish (dog)"; this in turn originated from the Latin Hispaniolus which simply means "Spanish". In Edward, 2nd Duke of York's work The Master of Game, which was mostly a 15th century translation of an earlier work by Gaston III of Foix-Béarn entitled Livre de chasse, Spaniels are described as being as much from Spain as you could consider all Greyhounds to be from England or Scotland.
Sixteenth-century English physician John Caius wrote that the spaniels of the time were mostly white, marked with spots that are commonly red. He described a new variety to have come out of France, which were speckled all over with white and black, "which mingled colours incline to a marble blewe".
Read more about this topic: Spaniel
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