Dictionary.com Word Of The Day
Aug. 17, 2016
mountebank\MOUN-tuh-bangk\noun
1. any charlatan or quack.
2. a person who sells quack medicines, as from a platform in public
places, attracting and influencing an audience by tricks, storytelling,
etc.
QuotesSo you restored the money to the widow, publicly, of course,
because you love playing to the gallery and ranting and posing, like
the mountebank that you are.
-- Maurice Leblanc, The Confessions of Arsène Lupin, translated by
Alexander Teixeira de Mattos, 1912
Origin of mountebankMountebank can be traced to the Italian term
montimbanco meaning "one who climbs on a bench" in reference to the
raised platforms employed by travelling salesmen to stand out in a
crowd. It entered English in the mid-1500s.More From
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