Pantagruelism
(pæntəˈgruːəlɪz(ə)m)
[a. F. pantagruélisme, f. Pantagruel: see above and -ism.]
1. The theory and practice ascribed to Pantagruel, one of the characters of Rabelais; extravagant and coarse humour with a satirical or serious purpose.
| 1835 Southey Doctor III. Interch. xiii. 340 Ignorant of humorology! more ignorant of psychology! and most ignorant of Pantagruelism. a 1849 H. Coleridge Ess. (1851) II. 234 An unsuccessful attempt at pantagruelism, with all the outrageousness and none of the richness of Rabelais. 1860 Donaldson Theatre of Greeks (ed. 7) 77 By Pantagruelism we mean..an assumption of Bacchanalian buffoonery as a cloak to cover some serious purpose. 1865 Wright Hist. Caricat. xix. 342 Pantagruelism, or, if you like, Rabelaism, did not, during the sixteenth century, make much progress beyond the limits of France. |
¶ 2. ‘The theory or practice of the medical profession: used in burlesque or ridicule’. (Webster.)
(App. an error from misunderstanding quot. 1835 above.)
| 1864 Webster (citing Southey as authority). [So in Ogilvie; also in Cassell, and later Dicts.] |