Who uses the word "charlatan" in their normal, everyday speech?

Question

I was just curious. My sister heard someone say it on TV and she's been running around calling people charlatans ever since. It's an interesting word.

Answer 1

“Charlatan” is originally French (1, 3), not Spanish. Charlatán / charlatana are words that do exist in Spanish for a talkative person, by extension a smooth-talker or a street vendor (2). But does the origin really matter?

It is usually related to bad doctors, and by extension any liar, professional or not, one who pretends to be what he/she is not. I have a painful memory of a dentist when I was 6 or 7, and my Mum telling my Dad that he was a “charlatan”.

A charlatan is someone who talks enormously to achieve only his/her own goals, without any consideration for any form of truth (by the way, I can’t think of a feminine application of that word in French).

The French “charlatan” appeared around the 15th Century (1). It comes itself from a mixture between the Italian “cerretano”, from Cerreto village (whose inhabitants used to sell drugs in market places) and “cialare” (to chatter, to gossip). The trade of a “charlatan” was accompanied with loud music, which recalls in some movies people extracting teeth while an assistant is rolling the drum loudly to cover the victim’s screams.

The term is not so obsolete, but I think English-speaking people would rather talk these days of “crooks” or worse.

It looks a bit complicated, but have a look at those articles (especially Wikipedia), and please stay away from these people. Remember the tar and feathers inflicted to those "miracle" doctors by local people with common sense?

Answer 2

Everyone's right here. Charlatan, I've heard in Spanish. So there exists a possiblity that it may be used in other Latin-based languages. It's much more of a down-to-earth word in Spanish than it is in English.

Answer 3

Hi , well many spanish people like myself might since it means:

Charlatan - talkative, chatterbox - male,
Charlatana - talkative, chatterbox - female


from the spanish verb Charlar - to chat or talk

However it also means

swindler, cunning salesman , travelling salesman but in a pejorative sense, like the ones in the west that sold ripp-off tonics etc, and this is more the sense it has in English




Best
Santiago

Answer 4

The word means: a person who pretends to have more skills or knowledge than he/she really has. The word is especially known for a person who pretends to have medical knowledge. Perhaps your sister has seen a TV series about doctors and hospitals. Please tell your sister to stop saying that word, someone who understands that word, can get really angry. That´s really not a nice word to call people. Hope she will understand, kind regards.

Answer 5

In my suggestions very frequently, in speech i attempt to apply it basically with my closes of acquaintances & collegues, no longer that i don't experience the might desire to declare it out loud to a stranger now and lower back ... yet others woult think of this is rood so i attempt to maintain it in my inner maximum circle of depended on human beings

Answer 6

I do, but only when discussing, say, politicians or religious leaders. It isn't appropriate to insult people like that. I doubt there are as many real charlatans in her vicinity as she's saying.

Answer 7

I do!

It means a person who is phony, false, misleading, etc. It is Spanish, and I associate with those people that, among other things, truly believe that 'if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it".

Hope it helps!

Answer 8

In German it's Scharlatan - meaning a trickser as in many other languages but not a simply talkative person.
I use it from time to time.

Answer 9

It is used in Turkish as 'Şarlatan' .

Means someone who's tricking people with talking.

Answer 10

I know a couple of writers who use it ... sometimes they forget that they are back in the real world. One girl told me that she lives and breathes her work until it's complete, pretty weird but true anyway