Mountebank

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈmaÊŠntəˌbæŋk/

Origin

From Italian montambanco ("quack who mounts a bench to hawk his wares") contracted from Italian monta-in-banco ("mount on bench").

Funk, W. J., Word origins and their romantic stories, New York, Wilfred Funk, Inc.

Full definition of mountebank

Noun

1. One who sells dubious medicines.There is nothing so impossible in Nature but mountebanks will undertake; nothing so incredible but they will affirm. - John Bull
2. One who sells by deception; a con artist; a charlatan.
• 1951, Isaac Asimov, (1974 publication), part III: “The Mayors”, chapter 7, page 106, ¶ 13“Are you allowing yourselves to be fooled by this mountebank, this harlequin? Do you cringe before a religion compounded of clouds and moonbeams? This man is an imposter and the Galactic Spirit he speaks of a fraud of the imagination devised to——”

Verb

1. (intransitive) To act as a mountebank.
2. (transitive) To cheat by boasting and false pretenses.Chide me no more. I'll mountebank their loves,
   Cog their hearts from them, and come home beloved - Coriolanus, William Shakespeare

Derived terms

• mountebankery