charlatan

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈʃɑːlətən/ (UK); /ˈʃɑɹlətən/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French charlatan (“mountebank, babbler”),^[2][3][4][5] from Italian ciarlatano (“quack”).^{[4][2][3][6][5]} The Italian word is an alteration of cerretano, literally “inhabitant of Cerreto”, a village known for its quacks,^[4][6][5] influenced by Italian ciarlare (“to chatter”).^[4][2][5] Etymonline derives it from ciarlare alone.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A street hawker, especially of medicines, who harangued a crowd; a mountebank.^[4][7][1]

Semantic evolution

From medicine sellers the word passed to quack doctors who claimed wonderful secrets,^[7] and from 1809 to any empty pretender to knowledge or skill.^[4][7]

Timeline

• 1605 – the OED's first quotation;^[7] Barnhart gives 1611, Etymonline the 1610s, and the American Heritage Dictionary and Merriam-Webster 1618.^{[7][2][3][4][6]}
• 1671 – adjective, quack.^[7]
• before 1680 – a quack doctor.^[7]
• 1809 – a pretender to knowledge or skill.^[4][7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A person who falsely claims knowledge or skill; a fraud.
2. A quack.

Word family

• charlatanic
• charlatanism
• charlatanry
• charlatanically

Related words

• mountebank
• quack

References

1. [1] [2] Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. [1] [2] [3] [4] Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
3. [1] [2] [3] [4] Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. [1] [2] [3] [4] Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
6. [1] [2] [3] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press