Chapter Pangloss to Panurge of P by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Pangloss to Panurge

Pangloss (Dr.). A learned pedant, very poor and very conceited, pluming himself on the titles of LL.D. and A.SS. (Greek, “All-tongue.”) (Colman: Heir-at-Law.)

Panic On one occasion Bacchus, in his Indian expeditions, was encompassed with an army far superior to his own; one of his chief captains, named Pan, advised him to command all his men at the dead of night to raise a simultaneous shout. The shout was rolled from mountain to mountain by innumerable echoes, and the Indians, thinking they were surrounded on all sides, took to sudden flight. From this incident, all sudden fits of great terror have been termed panics. (See Judges vii. 18-21.)
   Theon gives another derivation, and says that the god Pan struck terror into the hearts of the giants, when they warred against heaven, by blowing into a sea-shell.

Panjandrum The Grand Panjandrum. A village boss, who imagines himself the “Magnus Apollo” of his neighbours. The word occurs in Foote's farrago of nonsense which he composed to test the memory of old Macklin, who said he had brought his memory to such perfection that he could remember anything by reading it over once.
    I myself knew a man at college who could do the same. He would repeat accurately one hundred lines of Greek by reading them twice over, although he could not accurately translate them. His memory was marvellous, but its uselessness was still more so.

Pantables To stand upon one's pantables. To stand upon one's dignity. Pantables are slippers, and the idea is se tenir sur le haut bout- i.e. to remit nothing.

“Hee standeth upon his pantables and regardeth greatly his reputation.”- Saker: Narbonus (1590).

Pantagruel' So called because he was born during the drought which lasted thirty and six months, three weeks, four days, thirteen hours, and a little more, in that year of grace noted for having “three Thursdays in one week.” His father was Gargantua, the giant, who was four hundred fourscore and forty-four years old at the time; his mother, Badebec, died in giving him birth; his grandfather was Grangousier (q.v.). He was so strong that he was chained in his cradle with four great iron chains, like those used in ships of the largest size; being angry at this, he stamped out the bottom of his bassanet, which was made of weavers' beams, and, when loosed by the servants, broke his bonds into five hundred thousand pieces with one blow of his infant fist. When he grew to manhood he knew all languages, all sciences, and all knowledge of every sort, out-Solomoning Solomon in wisdom. Having defeated Anarchus, King of the Dipsodes, all submitted except the Almirods. Marching against these people, a heavy rain fell, and Pantagruel covered his whole army with his tongue. While so doing, Alcofribas crawled into his mouth, where he lived six months, taking toll of every morsel that his lord ate. His immortal achievement was his voyage from Utopia in quest of the “oracle of the Holy Bottle” (q.v.).

“Wouldst thou not issue forth ...
To see the third part in this earthy cell
Of the brave acts of good Pantagruel'.”
Rabelais: To the Spirit of the Queen of Navarre.

    Pantagruel was the last of the race of giants.

“My thirst with Pantagruel's own would rank.”- Punch, June 15th, 1893, p. 17.

   Pantagruel' (meant for Henri II., son of Francois I.), in the satirical romance of Rabelais, entitled History of Gargantua and Pantagruel.

Pantagruelion The great Pantagruelion law case (Lord Busqueue v. Lord Suckfist). This case, having nonplussed all the judges in Paris, was referred to Lord Pantagruel for decision. The writs, etc., were as much as four asses could carry, but the arbiter determined to hear the plaintiff and defendant state their own cases. Lord Busqueue spoke first, and pleaded such a rigmarole that no one on earth could unravel its meaning; Lord Suckfist replied, and the bench declared “We have not understood one single circumstance of the defence.” Then Pantagruel gave sentence, but his judgment was as obscure and unintelligible as the case itself. So, as no one understood a single sentence of the whole affair, all were perfectly satisfied, a “thing unparalleled in the annals of the law.” (Rabelais: Pantagruel, book ii.)