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Today's Word "mountebank"

A charlatan on

Published in Vocabulary

mountebank \MOUN-tuh-bank\ (noun) - 1 : A peddler of quack medicine, who stands on a platform to appeal to the audience. 2 : A charlatan; a boastful pretender to knowledge or a skill.

"I am God's mountebank, doing God's precious business in my own way. But God's precious business cannot be carried on, even by a mountebank, without money..." -- Arnold Bennett, 'Anna of the Five Towns'

 

Mountebank comes from the Italian montambanco, montimbanco, from the phrase monta in banco, literally "mounts on bench" (i.e. "gets up on a bench").


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