mountebank means one who sells dubious medicines. It carries an Arena rating of 1873, earned across 181 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, mountebank ranks #11 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #114 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say, #126 of 17,163 for Funniest Words, #243 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words.
mountebank is pronounced /ˈmaʊntəˌbæŋk/.
Why “mountebank” is a great word
MOUNTEBANK — [Noun] A person who sells dubious remedies or deceives others by boastful pretenses; a charlatan or con artist. From archaic Italian montambanco, a contraction of monta in banco, from montare ("to mount") + in ("on") + banco ("bench"), literally "one who mounts a bench" (to hawk wares). Unlike "quack," which specifically denotes a fraudulent medical practitioner, or "charlatan," a general pretender to skill, a mountebank is a theatrical performer of fraud, his deception inseparable from the platform that elevates him. He is the velvet-clad orator on a wooden stage, the purveyor of bottled "elixir" that glows with cheap dye, and the grand architect of schemes built on audacious promises—a fleeting, tawdry pageant whose only truth is the emptiness of the bottle.
Etymology
From archaic Italian montambanco (“quack who mounts a bench to hawk his wares”), contracted from monta-in-banco (“mount on bench”).
noun
- One who sells dubious medicines.
- One who sells by deception; a con artist.e.g.“Donne was a mountebank who wrapped up his lack of meaning in hard words.” — 1928, Virginia Woolf, chapter 2, in Orlando: A Biography, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, →OCLC, page 83:
- Any boastful, false pretender.
- An acrobat.
verb
- To act as a mountebank.
- To cheat by boasting and false pretenses.e.g.“Ile Mountebanke their Loues, / Cogge their Hearts from them,” — c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] B
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- mountebankish 81% match — Like a mountebank; using or suggesting quackery. vs mountebank →
- mountebankism 80% match — The practices of a mountebank; mountebankery. vs mountebank →
- mountebankery 72% match — The practices of a mountebank; quackery; boastful and vain pretenses. vs mountebank →
- charlatan 66% match — A mountebank, someone who addresses crowds in the street; (especially), an itinerant seller of medicines or drugs. vs mountebank →
- saltimbanco 62% match — A quack doctor, a fraud. vs mountebank →
- flimflam 61% match — To swindle or cheat. vs mountebank →
- clown 56% match — A slapstick performance artist often associated with a circus and usually characterized by bright, oversized clothing, a red nose, face paint, and a brightly colored wig. vs mountebank →
- humbugging 55% match — An act of one who humbugs (in all senses, for example, swindling, fighting, etc.). vs mountebank →