What is the likely origin of the Germanic word “türken“, meaning to trick or deceive, and how is it related to an encounter with le petit caporal?

zbeckabee

Le Petit Caporal (Little(humble) Corporal) Napoleon Bonaparte. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grande_Arm%C3%A9e_slang Publicly promoted as an automaton and given its common name based on its appearance, the Turk was in fact a mechanical illusion that allowed a human chess master hiding inside to operate the machine. With a skilled operator, the Turk won most of the games played during its demonstrations around Europe and the Americas for nearly 84 years until its destruction by fire in 1854, playing and defeating many challengers including statesmen such as Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin. An unprovable but very plausible theory states that the Turk left its mark in the German language in the idiomatic expression einen Türken bauen ("to build a Turk") or türken ("to Turk"), meaning "to hoax, to deceive". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turk Aug 22 08, 5:37 AM