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, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:

     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, 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

• Arabic: دَجَّال (dajjāl)
• 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 (da) c, snydepels c, fidusmager c, svindler (da) 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)

French

Etymology

Borrowed 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
• → Romanian: șarlatan

Further reading

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

Middle French

Noun

charlatan m (plural charlatans)

1. a street-seller of medicines

Descendants

• → English: charlatan
• French: charlatan
  • → Romanian: șarlatan

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)