charlatan
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charlatan
From French, from Italian, from "ciarlare" meaning "to prate, babble". My source posits that it may be imitative of a duck. Speaking of duck, brings me to quack - in the pejorative sense. This is from Dutch for quacksalver, meaning "hawker of salve". This word permeates the Germanic tongues to this day. My apologies to the medical profession for indulging in this mild research.
William A. Hupy
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Re: charlatan
Interesting the idea that a fake doctor, a charlatan if ever there was one, is also called a duck, er, quack.
Here is the root I found by rooting around on dictionary.com:
I do like a couple of the other forms, too. Charlatanic and charlatanism are so close to hellish evil that there must be a few great ways to make use of them.
Here is the root I found by rooting around on dictionary.com:
I guess that would make charlatan an eponym, no?1595-1605; < Middle French < Italian ciarlatano, equivalent to ciarla (tore) chatterer (derivative of ciarlare to chatter; from imitative root) + ( cerre) tano hawker, quack, literally, native of Cerreto, a village in Umbria, known for its quacks
I do like a couple of the other forms, too. Charlatanic and charlatanism are so close to hellish evil that there must be a few great ways to make use of them.
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