Posted on 11/16/2011 6:30:32 AM PST by VRWCmember
In order that we might all raise the level of discourse and expand our language abilities, here is the daily post of "Word for the Day".
mountebank \MOUN-tih-bank\ - noun
1. a person who sells quack medicines from a platform
2. a boastful unscrupulous pretender; charlatan
Example sentence:
In his newspaper column, Gavin criticized the talk-radio host as "a mountebank whose 'expert' opinions and advice are complete hooey."
Extra Example sentence:
"Bring your five-minute tales related to all things fraudulent and pseudo. Flimflammers, mountebanks, poseurs and snake oil salesmen especially welcome." -- From a literary events listing by Gina Webb in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, September 25, 2011
Did you know?
"Mountebank" derives from the Italian "montimbanco," which was formed by combining the verb "montare" ("to mount"), the preposition "in" (converted to "im," meaning "in" or "on"), and the noun "banco" ("bench"). Put these components together and you can deduce the literal origins of "mountebank" as someone mounted on a bench -- the "bench" being the platform on which charlatans from the 16th and 17th centuries would stand to sell their phony medicines. Mountebanks often included various forms of light entertainment on stage in order to attract customers. Later, extended uses of "mountebank" referred to someone who falsely claims to have knowledge about a particular subject or a person who simply pretends to be something he or she is not in order to gain attention.
Rules: Everyone must leave a post using the Word for the Day in a sentence.
The sentence must, in some way, relate to the news of the day.
The Review threads are linked for your edification. ;-)
Practice makes perfect.....post on....
Review Threads:
Review Thread One: Word For The Day, Thursday 11/14/02: Raffish (Be SURE to check out posts #92 and #111 on this thread!)
Review Thread Two: Word For The Day, Tuesday 1/14/03: Roister
Review Thread Three: Word For The Day, Tuesday 1/28/03: Obdurate
Review Thread Four: Word For the Day, Friday 7/25/03: Potation
Review Thread Five: Word For the Day, Monday 8/19/03: Stolid
Review Thread Six: Word for the Day, Tuesday 11/09/2004: Peripatetic (Post #125 may be my best anagram post ever)
Here is my example with today's WFTD:
Obama and Dopey Joe Biden, two mountebanks that make the most outrageous snakeoil salesman look like a piker, are out on the trail selling more BS to an adoring media. Unfortunately, the republicans have their own mountebank in Newt, who appears to be rising in the polls for some inexplicable reason.
Obama's Half-Billion-Dollar Crony Drug Deal
Vice President Joe Biden calls SB 5 vote a victory for the middle class at stop in Euclid
Gingrich's 2012 platform at odds with planks from past
No pushing at the door please!
Happy Humpday Everybody!
Only days left until BO's replacement is sworn in.
Get to class you slackers! I've opened a new classroom, but Dave forgot to get the gradebook from xsmommy. So if you're looking for a grade you'll have to ping her. Secret Garden and Tioga are usually pretty generous with the plusses if you compliment their shapely legs, so you might try submitting your homework to them instead. My secret for getting extra plusses on my A+ from xs will remain a secret between me and her, so you're on your own if you want her to review your work.
Only days until Christmas.
The Mountie Bank
Sandusky pretty much proved he was a mountebank by giving that interview.
The mountebank is where the mountepython lives.
This is too easy. The US montebank in chief is hanging out with world leaders in Hawaii, further embarrassing the US with stupid statements and apologies about “lazy” Americans.
Can’t get $ from a mountebank.
The Germans run tightly their bundesbank
More careful than most in the eurobank
While from Italy to Greece
They just loaf, spend and fleece
Seeking the title: Best Mountebank
Gay cowboy grifters live on Mountebank Mountain.
And we all remember that historical movie, Brokeback Mountebank, about a pair of gay snake oil salesmen.......
One week from the election and the Allegheny county Dems are talking property tax increase.
I like it when voters are rewarded with exactly what they asked for.
Where do members of the RCMP deposit their paychecks?
are they smart enough to even make the connection? seems republicans should be making some of those pre-election calls post-election to say, tolja so.
If the OWSers don’t get their way, they say they are going to mountebank attack.
If they were smart enough to make the connection, you’d think they would vote differently.
It’s not like every time Democrats are elected they suddenly discover the budget is in worse shape than they thought before the election and they have to raise taxes immediately.
Oh, wait, yes it is.
extremely clever, i give you an A++
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