mountebank

[moun-tuh-bangk]

noun

1. a person who sells quack medicines, as from a platform in public places, attracting and influencing an audience by tricks, storytelling, etc.

   Synonyms: pitchman

2. any charlatan or quack.

   Synonyms: fraud, pretender, phony

verb (used without object)

1. to act or operate as a mountebank.

mountebank

/ ˈmaʊntɪˌbæŋk /

noun

1. (formerly) a person who sold quack medicines in public places

2. a charlatan; fake

verb

1. (intr) to play the mountebank

Other Word Forms

• mountebankery noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of mountebank¹

1570–80; (< Middle French ) < Italian montimbanco one who climbs on a bench, equivalent to mont ( are ) to climb ( mount ¹ ) + -im-, variant of in on + banco bench ( bank ² )

Word History and Origins

Origin of mountebank¹

C16: from Italian montambanco a climber on a bench, from montare to _mount ² + banco _bench (see also _bank ¹ )

Example Sentences

Mencken described Bryan as “a charlatan, a mountebank, a zany without sense or dignity.”

Read more on Salon

“He was, in fact, a charlatan, a mountebank . . .” But, unlike Bryan and Trump, Kissinger had a deep sense of purpose.

Read more on Salon

The Republican, who is angling for the GOP nomination for president, staged a roundtable of scientific mountebanks on Wednesday to attack the vaccines.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Jay was so enamored of Malini that he devoted an entire chapter of his book, “Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women,” to the man he described as the “last of the mountebanks.”

Read more on Seattle Times

In this world in which self-interested mountebanks command followers on social media and the airwaves by the millions, it doesn’t take much for a misinformation and disinformation campaign to cloud people’s minds.

Read more on Los Angeles Times