charlatan
noun
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In medieval Italy, people roamed throughout the land selling fake remedies and making false claims about their healing abilities. Many of these pretenders reputedly came from a village called Cerreto, and as a result, cerretano (meaning “inhabitant of Cerreto”) became an epithet for a quack physician. In addition, these frauds used a practiced patter to attract customers, like the chatter of a circus barker. The Italian word for “to chatter” is ciarlare, and chattering was so associated with the cerretano that the spelling of the word shifted to ciarlatano. By the early 17th century, English speakers had anglicized the Italian word to charlatan and adopted it as their own.
Synonyms
Examples of charlatan in a Sentence
A.a. Dowd, Vulture, 30 July 2024
What’s interesting about it is that in the book, the Dragon Queen is very obviously a con woman and a charlatan right away, and she was based on someone that’s real.
—Max Gao, The Hollywood Reporter, 9 Oct. 2024
This is not a situation where, say, an elderly person of limited means, knowledge and capacity was duped by a charlatan and there’s a viable case for unconscionability.
—Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 27 Sep. 2024
Nadia, the Russian mail-order bride of Jez Butterworth’s 2001 film Birthday Girl, bounces unnervingly among multiple guises: seducer, charlatan, love interest.
—Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 13 Sep. 2024
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Dictionary Entries Near charlatan
Cite this Entry
“Charlatan.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/charlatan. Accessed 26 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
charlatan
noun
from Italian ciarlatano "charlatan," an altered form of cerretano (same meaning), literally, "inhabitant of Cerreto (village in Italy)"
Medical Definition
charlatan
noun
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