Panurge
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Panurge (from Greek Πανοῦργος / Panoûrgos meaning "He who makes everything") is one of the principal characters in the Pantagruel (especially the third and fourth books) of Rabelais, an exceedingly crafty knave, a libertine, and a coward.
In Chapter 9 of the first book he shows he can speak many languages (German, Italian, Scottish, Dutch, Spanish, Danish, Hebrew, Greek, Latin and French), including some of the first examples of a constructed language.
In French, he appears in the set phrase mouton de Panurge, after a story in which he buys a sheep from the merchant Dindenault and then, for revenge, makes the sheep jump off a cliff. The rest of the sheep in the herd stupidly jump after it in spite of the shepherd.
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Other uses
- Panurge is also the title of an opera by Jules Massenet.
- Panurge Press, a United States publisher
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