Meanings
- 1
Thesaurus
17th century. Probably from Low German ögeln (“to ogle, to flirt with one's eyes”), from Middle Low German ö̂gelen, frequentative of Middle Low German ö̂gen, from Old Saxon ōgian, from Proto-West Germanic *augijan (“to show”). Alternatively from an equivalent Dutch *ogelen, but this seems unattested (only the simplex ogen). By surface analysis, eye + -le.