Potëmkin

[poh-tem-kin, puh-, puh-tyawm-kyin]

noun

1. Prince Grigori Aleksandrovich 1739–91, Russian statesman and favorite of Catherine II.

Potemkin

/ paˈtjɔmkin, pɒˈtɛmkɪn /

noun

1. Grigori Aleksandrovich (ɡriˈɡɔrij alɪkˈsandrəvitʃ). 1739–91, Russian soldier and statesman; lover of Catherine II, whose favourite he remained until his death, and who is reputed to have erected sham villages along the route of the Empress's 1787 tour of the Crimea

2. apparently impressive but actually sham or artificial

   North Korea's Potemkin hospital

Example Sentences

But a lawsuit filed hours after the Texas Senate moved the maps to Gov. Greg Abbott for his approval alleged that all the finagling had created “Potemkin majority-Latino districts.”

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It was like the climactic scene in “Blazing Saddle,” when incompetent villain Hedley Lamarr tried to invade a small town with the baddest of hombres besides him only to find a Potemkin village.

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And if he succeeds in transforming America into a de facto dictatorship, he will need lawyers to staff the remaining Potemkin legal system.

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The story of Watson kept growing, a Potemkin village of charm, a performance of himself as the answer to calls for diversity, with so much at stake but no real foundation, even among the people at his own company.

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It is only Potemkin objectivity: empty, unconvincing, and ultimately wielded in service of something awful.

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