The story
- German Low German · derived fromPudel
- English todaypootle
Apparently an alteration of poodle, from German Low German Pudel, from the onomatopoeic term pudeln (“to splash about”) by its merging with tootle. Alternatively, a blending of doodle (to draw aimlessly) with potter (to move aimlessly)—as reported by 1970s English visitors to Australia.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.