Pumpernickel means "devil's fart", a definition accepted by the publisher Random House, and by some English language dictionaries, including the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. The American Heritage Dictionary adds "so named from being hard to digest". A variant of this explanation is also given by the German etymological dictionary "Kluge" that says the word is older than its usage for the particular type of bread, and may have been used as a mocking name for a person of unrefined manners ("farting Nick") first. The change of meaning may have been caused by its use as a mocking expression for the (in the eyes
The Scarlet Pumpernickel which Daffy compares his own daring stunts with those of Errol Flynn. The Grand Duke and the Scarlet Pumpernickel engage in an intense duel, but no conclusive ending is given as to who ultimately wins the battle and what happens at the end. Daffy, as the scriptwriter, either having only thought of the beginning and middle of the story or lost the rest of his script underneath a huge pile of pages, and being pressured by the enthusiastic J.L., overdoes the ending as an unlikely series of random and accelerating natural disasters; a thunderstorm breaking a dam, a cavalry charge