Mountebank

Definition: Mountebank

Mountebank

Noun

1. A flamboyant deceiver; one who attracts customers with tricks or jokes.

Date "mountebank" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1509. (references)

Domain	Definition
Literature	Mountebank The bank or bench was the counter on which shopkeepers of yore displayed their goods. Streetvendors used to mount on their b�nk to patter to the public. The French word is "saltim banque; " and the Italian word "Cantambanco " (i.e. canta in lanco, one who patters from his bank). In Italian, montambanco (a quack-doctor) is also in use. "... Se disant estre quelque trabe. ou quelque Juif convert, il se feignoit medecin du roi de Perse, et comme tel il montoit la banque. C'estoit la que, pour debiter ses drogues, il etourdissoit de son babil toute l'assemblée."- Histoirc Generale des Larrons, book i. chap. xxix. There were temporary mountebanks as well as more regular merchants. In Attica, the names of Dolon and Susarion of Icaria are distinguished. In France, Tabaria, Tabarin, Turlupin, Gauthier-Garguille, Gros-Guillaume, Guillot-Gorju, Bob�che, Galimaufré, and Gringalet (a marvellous number of G's). In England, Andrew Borde, and some few others of inferior note. Source: Brewer's Dictionary.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Synonym: Mountebank

Synonym: charlatan (n). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Deceiver	Quack, charlatan, mountebank, saltimbanco, saltimbanque, empiric, quacksalver, medicaster, Rosicrucian, gypsy; man of straw.
Humorist	Buffoon, farceur, merry-andrew, mime, tumbler, acrobat, mountebank, charlatan, posturemaster, harlequin, punch, pulcinella, scaramouch, clown; wearer of the cap and bells, wearer of the motley; motley fool; pantaloon, gypsy; jack-pudding, jack in the green, jack a dandy; wiseacre, wise guy, smartass; fool.
The Drama	Mountebank, Jack Pudding; tumbler, posture master, acrobat; contortionist; ballet dancer, ballet girl; chorus singer; coryphee danseuse.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Mountebank

English words defined with "mountebank": Merry-andrew, Mountebankery, Mountebankish, Mountebankism ♦ Quacksalver ♦ Saltimbanco. (references)

Specialty definitions using "mountebank": JACK PUDDING ♦ MERRY ANDREW, MR ♦ ZANY. (references)

Domain	Usage
Movie/TV Titles	Belphegor the Mountebank (1921)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
Books	Jojo: Historia De UN Saltimbanqui/Jojo: Story of a Mountebank (reference) The mountebank (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Play	Caption
	Clown; clowny; funny; horn; honk; honking; joker; antic; buffoon; comedian; comic; cut-up; dolt; droll; farceur; fool; funnyman; gagman; gagster; harlequin; humorist; jester; jokesmith; jokester; madcap; merry-Andrew; merrymaker; mime; mountebank; mummer.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Author	Date	Quotation
Communist Manifesto	1848	This German Socialism, which took its schoolboy task so seriously and solemnly, and extolled its poor stock-in-trade in such mountebank fashion, meanwhile gradually lost its pedantic innocence. (reference)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Title	Author	Quote
Les Miserables	Hugo, Victor	The father, with the agility of a mountebank, caught a broken pot which stood on the mantel, and threw some water upon the embers.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

"Mountebank" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 80.00% of the time. "Mountebank" is used about 5 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	80%	4	175,879
Lexical Verb (infinitive)	20%	1	339,140
Total	100.00%	5	N/A

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "mountebank"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		mashtrues (ambidextrous, artful, bilker, bluffer, bouncer, catchy, cheat, Crimp, deceitful, deceiver, deceptive, delusive, delusory, diddler, dishonest, dodger, double, double dealing, double-dealer, finagler, fraud, fraudulent, guileful, gyp, humbug, hustler, impostor, Jack-in-the-box, mendacious, misleading, pettifogger, pettifogging, phoney, quack, racketeer, rascal, rascally, rogue, sandman, shuffler, skin, snide, swindler, trickster, twister, two-tongued), sharlatan (charlatan, phoney, quack, sham), shakaxhi (funnyman, funster, jester, joker, quiz, wag, waggish). (various references)

Arabic		‏المشعوذ (charlatan, conjurer, magician, magus, operator, prestidigitator, sorcerer, voodoo, warlock), ‏الدجال (charlatan, impostor, magus, operator, quack, sham, witchdoctor), ‏شعوذ (conjure, juggle, quack), ‏دجل على الناس, ‏بائع الأدوية الزائفة. (various references)

Bulgarian		шарлатанствувам (quack), шарлатанин (charlatan, humbug, operator, phoney, phony, quack, quacksalver, shyster), клоун (clown, funnyman, harlequin, punchinello, the vice, zany). (various references)

French		sorcier, imposteur, charlatan. (various references)

German		Marktschreier (Hawker, mountebanks). (various references)

Greek		αγύρτησ (charlatan, fortune teller, hoodwinker, humbug, impostor, mumper, quack, rogue, swindler), τσαρλατάνοσ (charlatan, quacksalver). (various references)

Hebrew		רמאי (cheat, cheater, cheating, deceiver, duper, fraudulent, humbug, impostor, ringer, rogue, scoundrel, sharper, sneaky, swindler, trickster), רופא אליל (medicine man, quack, witchdoctor), � וכל בעל לשון חלקלק�". (various references)

Hungarian		kókler, szélhámos (bilker, cheat, chiseler, con man, confidence man, fake, fiddler, fraud, gouge, gyp, humbug, hustler, impostor, phoney, phony, rogue, rooky, shark, sharper, swindler, trickster), szédelgő (fake, faker, fraud, skin), sarlatán (charlatan, empiricist, imposter, medicaster, quack, quack doctor, sham, tarlatan). (various references)

Indonesian		penipu (duper, liar, pretender, two timer). (various references)

Italian		ciarlatano (charlatan, phoney, quack, sham). (various references)

Pig Latin		ountebankmay

Portuguese		saltimbanco (acrobat), proceder como charlatão, palhaço (antic, buffoon, clown, joker, lout, merry andrew, mime, scaramouch), charlatão (charlatan, empiric, gabbler, imposter, medicaster, pettifogger, quack, quacksalver, sciolist). (various references)

Romanian		strigãtor la bâlci, saltimbanc (rope walker), pungaş (biter, cheat, Cutpurse, duffer, fraud, gun, jockey, juggler, knave, lurcher, manipulator, pickpocket, pilferer, prig, rascal, rogue, rook, rough, scab, shark, snap, swindler, thief), escroc (bilk, biter, blackguard, blackleg, carpet bagger, charlatan, cheat, crook, desperado, double-dealer, duffer, faker, fraud, gambler, gamester, gouge, gyp, impostor, jockey, juggler, knave, rogue, rook, scab, shark, sharp, sharper, snap, swindler), şarlatan (charlatan, coon, desperado, history, impostor, juggler, quack). (various references)

Russian		фигляр (cutup, merry andrew, mugger, mummer, zany), шут (buffoon, clown, droll, fool, harlequin, jester, man of motley, merry andrew, tomfool, zany), шарлатан (charlatan, juggler). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		varalica (charlatan, chouse, crook, double-dealer, fake, fraud, gyp, impostor, jack-in-the-box, sharper, swindler, trickster, wheeler dealer), šarlatan (charlatan, quack). (various references)

Spanish		saltimbanqui, saltabanco. (various references)

Swedish		kvacksalvare (charlatan, empiric, quack, quack doctor). (various references)

Thai		หลอกลวง (betray, cheat, dupe, euchre, fake out, fiddle, fool, fox, fudge, gull, hoax, humbug), คนหลอกลวง (swindler), คนหลอกขายยา. (various references)

Turkish		şarlatan (charlatan, croaker, dabbler, empiric, fake, faker, humbug, phoney, phony, quack, sciolist, wag). (various references)

Ukrainian		обманювати (baffle, bam, beguile, begunk, betray, bluff, bubble, buffalo, cheat, chouse, cozen, deceive, defraud, delude, do down, double cross, gouge, impose, swindle, trick, victimize), обманщик (bluff, bluffer, cheat, counterfeit, counterfeiter, deceiver, dissembler, double-dealer, foist, fraud, humbug, impostor, phoney, pretender, trickster, twister), лікар-шарлатан, блазень (antic, aper, banana, buffoon, clown, harlequin, jester, motley, owl-glass, tomfool, zany). (various references)

Vietnamese		người bán thuốc rong lăng băm kẻ khoác lác lừa người. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "mountebank": mountebanked, mountebankeries, mountebankery, mountebanking, mountebanks. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Mountebank" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: montebank, mountebanc, Mountevans, mountibank. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-b-e-k-m-n-n-o-t-u"
	-2 letters: banknote, bunkmate, butanone, umbonate.
	-3 letters: automen, boatmen, montane, nonmeat, noumena, outbake, outbeam, tonneau, unmeant, untaken.
	-4 letters: amount, bannet, batmen, beknot, bemoan, bonnet, butane, embank, entomb, nekton, numbat, omenta, outman, tombak, unbent, unkent, unknot, unmake, untame.
	-5 letters: about, ament, anent, atone, baton, beano, beaut, beton, bonne, bunko, buteo, knout, meant, menta, monte, mount, muton, nomen.
	Words containing the letters "a-b-e-k-m-n-n-o-t-u"
	+1 letter: mountebanks.
	+2 letters: mountebanked.
	+3 letters: mountebankery, mountebanking.
	+5 letters: mountebankeries.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.