Urquhart, Sir Thomas

Urquhart or Urchard, Sir Thomas

(both: ûr`kərt), 1611–60, Scottish translator and author. A royalist, he was knighted (1641) by Charles I and fought in the civil wars. He wrote treatises on mathematics and linguistics, but he is noted especially for his superb translation of three books (first two, 1653; third, 1693) of the Gargantua of Rabelais.