Show Word Canard Started By Ducky French Story It is interesting to note the man man- manner manner manner ner in which we have come to apply the term canard to any slander or outrageous story Canard is the French word for duck About 50 years ago a French journalist set all aU Paris talking by an article in one of the daily newspapers pur pur- purporting purporting purporting porting to tell of a wager he had made with some other newspaper newspapermen men to the effect that given one day to prepare he could eat 20 ducks at a sitting According to his tale his wager was eagerly taken by byall byall byall all who heard it Then according to toI I his story he went to the market bought 20 ducks and by the proc proc- process process process ess of hourly killing one duck and feeding it to the others he arrived in 20 hours at a final duck with all the others inside it This the jour jour- journalist journalist journalist wrote he promptly killed roasted and ate at one sitting The story caused endless comment was copied all over France and in other countries until countries until some curious person raised a public demand to know whether or not this procedure was accepted by the other bettors as a bona fide performance of the wager Eventually the journalist had to explain that the whole story was a fake written merely to ex excite excite excite cite comment As a result we have havethe havethe havethe the word canard to define just that th t kind of a yarn |