saltimbanco

Why this word is great

SALTIMBANCO — Noun. A quack doctor or fraud, especially one associated with street performers or entertainers. From Italian saltimbanco, literally 'one who jumps on a bench,' from saltare ('to jump,' from Latin) + in ('on') + banco ('bench'). Unlike mountebank—which implies a more brazen charlatan—saltimbanco carries the flicker of the carnival, the greasepaint and sawdust of a performer turned fraud. A quack may peddle snake oil in a dim back room, but a saltimbanco does it with a flourish, leaping onto a crate to draw a crowd, his sleight of hand as much a part of the act as the cure. The scent of roasted chestnuts, the jangle of a tambourine, the way the light catches his threadbare velvet coat—here, the deceit is theater, and the audience, for a coin or two, is happy to play along. The world has always had more need of spectacle than truth.