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charlatan

noun
/ˈʃɑɹlətən/US/ˈʃɑːlətən/UK

Etymology

From Middle French charlatan, from Old Italian ciarlatano (“quack”), a blend of ciarlatore (“chatterer”) + cerretano (“hawker, quack”, literally “native of Cerreto”) (Cerreto di Spoleto being a village in Umbria, known for its quacks).

  1. derived from ciarlatano
  2. derived from charlatan

Definitions

  1. A mountebank, someone who addresses crowds in the street

    A mountebank, someone who addresses crowds in the street; (especially), an itinerant seller of medicines or drugs.

    • The poor foreigner, more dead than alive, answered that he was an Italian charlatan, who had practised with some reputation in Padua […].

  2. A malicious trickster

    A malicious trickster; a fake person, especially one who deceives for personal profit.

    • That this disgraceful charlatan holds one of the great offices of state in this country should be a source of constant shame and embarrassment to the Prime Minister.

The neighborhood

Derived

charlatanic, charlatanical, charlatanship

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for charlatan. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA