Log in or Sign up
charlatan love

charlatan

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A person who makes elaborate, fraudulent, and often voluble claims to skill or knowledge; a quack or fraud.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who pretends to knowledge, skill, importance, etc., which he does not possess; a pretender; a quack, mountebank, or empiric.
  • noun Synonyms Impostor, cheat, pretender; Mountebank, etc. (see quack).

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who prates much in his own favor, and makes unwarrantable pretensions; a quack; an impostor; an empiric; a mountebank.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a flamboyant deceiver; one who attracts customers with tricks or jokes

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Italian ciarlatano, probably alteration (influenced by ciarlare, to prattle) of cerretano, inhabitant of Cerreto, a city of Italy once famous for its quacks.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French charlatan, from Italian ciarlatano ("quack"), a blend of ciarlatore ("a chatterer") and cerretano ("a hawker, quack"), literally, a native of Cerreto, a village in Umbria, known for its quacks.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word charlatan.

Examples

  • Frequently, the charlatan is more convincing and credible.

    Physician Licensing, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • Any reviewer who crafts a fanciful narratives characterising the writer as some sort of hack or charlatan is waving that gun in the air.

    Ethics and Enthusiasm Hal Duncan 2009

  • Harry Reid, please expel this charlatan from the caucus.

    Lieberman on party switch: 'All options are open' 2009

  • I swear I don't know what's wrong with the people in Connecticut but to keep re-electing this charlatan is beyond me.

    Hadassah Lieberman under attack over industry ties 2009

  • This huckster or streetcorner charlatan is going to be a lame duck in less than a year from now as the coward in theif dosen't realize that the independents that ELECTED him are running from his BS and LIES in droves.

    Tom DeLay trades political stage for the real thing 2009

  • All you Obamaramazombies can take what this charlatan is peddling as gospel, but thinking people won't and don't.

    Obama to hold 'big press conference' on Wright 2008

  • I think the Swift Boat political advertisement calling Kerry a charlatan is in poor taste, and if this kind of thing continues it might well backfire on the Kerry haters.

    1001 2004

  • I think the Swift Boat political advertisement calling Kerry a charlatan is in poor taste, and if this kind of thing continues it might well backfire on the Kerry haters.

    Archive 2004-08-01 2004

  • I think the Swift Boat political advertisement calling Kerry a charlatan is in poor taste, and if this kind of thing continues it might well backfire on the Kerry haters.

    I can't believe... 2004

  • I think the Swift Boat political advertisement calling Kerry a charlatan is in poor taste, and if this kind of thing continues it might well backfire on the Kerry haters.

    Primary Returns 2004

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Kristianto2010 commented on the word charlatan

    Aware of religious charlatans who “peddled” God’s Word for their own desires, the apostle Paul wrote, “We are not, as so many, peddling the Word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God” 2 Corinthians 2:17. ODB Mar-25, 2011.

    March 26, 2011