charlatan

charlatan

See also: charlatán

English

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).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈʃɑɹlətən/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈʃɑːlətən/

• Audio (Canadian)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: char‧la‧tan

Noun

charlatan (plural charlatans)

1. (obsolete) A mountebank, someone who addresses crowds in the street; (especially), an itinerant seller of medicines or drugs.
   • 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, chapter 38, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume I, London: Harrison and Co., […], published 1781, OCLC 316121541:

     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 fake person, especially one who deceives for personal profit.

   Synonyms: trickster, swindler; see also Thesaurus:deceiver

   • 2018 (June), Ian Murray in The Independent

     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.

Related terms

• charlatanism
• charlatanry

Translations

malicious trickster

Armenian: ընդվայրաբան (əndvayraban), շառլատան (hy) (šaṙlatan) Bulgarian: шарлата́нин (bg) m (šarlatánin) Catalan: xarlatà (ca) m Chinese: Mandarin: 騙子／骗子 (zh) (piànzǐ), (quack) 庸醫／庸医 (zh) (yōngyī) Czech: šarlatán (cs) m Danish: charlatan c, fupmager c, snydepels c, fidusmager c, svindler c, platugle c Dutch: charlatan (nl) m Finnish: huijari (fi), puoskari (fi) French: charlatan (fr) m Galician: charlatán m German: Scharlatan (de) m Greek: αγύρτης (el) m (agýrtis) Ancient: ὀχλαγωγός m (okhlagōgós) Hebrew: שרלטן‎ (he) m (šarletan) Hungarian: sarlatán (hu) Indonesian: penipu (id), dukun (id) Italian: ciarlatano (it) m Japanese: 薮医者 (やぶいしゃ, yabuisha) Korean: 사기꾼 (ko) (sagikkun), 허풍선이 (heopungseoni), 돌팔이 (dolpari) Latin: magus Maori: tohunga kēhua Norwegian: Bokmål: sjarlatan (no) m Nynorsk: sjarlatan m Occitan: charlatan (oc) m Persian: شارلاتان‎ (fa) (šârlâtân) Polish: szarlatan (pl) m Portuguese: charlatão (pt) m Russian: шарлата́н (ru) m (šarlatán), шарлата́нка (ru) f (šarlatánka) Spanish: charlatán (es) m, vendehúmos (es), vendedor de crecepelo Turkish: şarlatan (tr) Ukrainian: дури́світ (uk) m (durýsvit), пройди́світ m (projdýsvit)

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French

Etymology

From Italian ciarlatano. Pejorative meaning first recorded 1668.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃaʁ.la.tɑ̃/

• charlatan

  (file)

Noun

charlatan m (plural charlatans, feminine charlatane)

1. (dated) a streetseller of medicines
2. a charlatan (trickster)
3. a quack

Descendants

• → Turkish: şarlatan

Further reading

• “charlatan”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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Middle French

Noun

charlatan m (plural charlatans)

1. a street-seller of medicines

Descendants

• → English: charlatan
• French: charlatan

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Swedish

Etymology

From French charlatan. Cognate of English charlatan, German Scharlatan.

Noun

charlatan c

1. fraudster, deceiver

Declension

Declension of charlatan
	Singular		Plural
	Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	charlatan	charlatanen	charlataner	charlatanerna
Genitive	charlatans	charlatanens	charlataners	charlatanernas

Derived terms

• charlataneri

References

• charlatan in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• charlatan in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• charlatan in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)