Le Canard enchaîné Free Man") which was forced to close by government censorship and reacted upon its reopening by changing its name to "L'homme enchaîné" ("The Chained-up Man"); "Le Canard enchaîné" means "The chained-up duck", but "canard" (duck) is also French slang for "newspaper"; it was also a reference to French journals published by soldiers during World War I. The weekly was founded in 1915 by and his wife , along with H. P. Gassier. It changed its title briefly after World War I to "Le Canard Déchaîné" ("The duck unbound", or "out of control"), to celebrate the end of military censorship of
Marius Canard with the 16th Chasseurs à cheval Regiment stationed at Beaune, and was decorated with the "Croix de Guerre" with a silver star. After the war, he went to Morocco, where he perfected his knowledge of Arabic. In 1920 he returned to Lyon, where he taught in the "Lycée du Parc". In order to further his language skills, he re-entered the local university's Faculty of Letters to learn Sanskrit. Canard then visited the "École des Langues Orientales" (now known as INALCO) in Paris, where he came to know both William Marçais (1872–1956), and Georges Marçais (1876–1962). The latter convinced Canard to