In the wake of Rabelais' book the word gargantuan (glutton) emerged, which in Hebrew is גרגרן Gargrån. French ravaler, following betacism a likely etymology of his name, means to swallow, to clean.
English literature
There is evidence of deliberate and avowed imitation of Rabelais' style, in English, as early as 1534.[25] The full extent of Rabelais' influence is complicated by the known existence of a chapbook, probably called The History of Gargantua, translated around 1567; and the Songes drolatiques Pantagruel (1565), ascribed to Rabelais, and used by Inigo Jones.[26] This complication manifests itself, for example, in Shakespeare's As You Like It, where "Gargantua's mouth" is mentioned;[27] but evidence that Shakespeare read Rabelais is only "suggestive".[27] A list of those who quoted or alluded to Rabelais before he was translated includes: Ben Jonson, John Donne, John Webster, Francis Bacon, Robert Burton, and James VI and I.[26] In intellectual circles, at the time, to quote or name Rabelais was "to signal an urban(e) wit, [and] good education";[26] though others, particularly Puritans, cited him with "dislike or contempt".[26] Rabelais' fame and influence increased after Urquhart's translation; later, there were many perceptive imitators, including Jonathan Swift (Gulliver's Travels) and Laurence Sterne (Tristram Shandy).[26] James Joyce's familiarity with Rabelais has been a vexed point, but "[t]here is now ample evidence both that Joyce was more familiar with Rabelais' work than he admitted and that he made use of it in Finnegans Wake".[28]
