Posted on 11/14/2013 4:39:32 AM PST by secret garden
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 \ˈmau̇n-ti-ˌbaŋk\ noun
1. a person who sells quack medicines from a platform
2. a boastful unscrupulous pretender : charlatan
Example sentences:
In the more open spaces, jugglers and mountebanks, usually accompanied by performing animals, went through all sorts of gambols and antics.
—Lewis Spence
Swindlers and mountebanks throng hither, adroit thieves creep stealthily about, all Indian customs and fashions are represented, all castes jostle each other.
—Karl Ritter Van Scherzer
Etymology:
Italian montimbanco, from montare to mount + in in, on +banco, banca bench. First Known Use: 1577. Mountebank, pronounced "MOUN-tih-bank," has an interesting origin, in the Italian phrase "monta in banco." It describes a "doctor" who would "mount a bench" in the marketplace. Standing a bit higher than the crowd enabled people to hear his sales pitch and see the potions and powders he claimed were medical cures that never failed — claims as bogus as his credentials. A mountebank is a fast-talking crook pretending to be an expert.
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 Thread One: Word For The Day, Thursday 11/14/02: Raffish
Review Thread Two: Word For The Day, Tuesday 1/14/03: Roister
Review Thread Three: Word For The Day, Tuesday 1/28/03: Obdurate
WFB's attempt to emulate us ; ) No pushing at the door please!
Rise and shine! Please let me know if you want to be added or dropped from the ping list and it will be as you wish.
Although actually, this definition:
1. a person who sells quack medicines from a platformpretty obviously makes me think of a certain "if you like what you have you can keep what you have" thief.
Mountebank
Where the Mounte Police keep their money?
Ever heard “Medicine Show” by Big Audio Dynamite?
Covered wagon medicine show
Take you to the place where the healing flows
Weak in spirit we got the juice
won’t save your soul it’ll shine your shoes
Treated king to kangaroo
Santa Fe to Timbuktu
Don’t be fooled by imitation
This is the stuff that cured a nation
We took the tube and the high plains too
Never stopped long just passing through
A drop of the laughter of the maids of France
Makes a hopeless cripple dance
In India we’re all the rave
Discovered that its great as aftershave
Dropped in the sea just off Japan
Swapped 20 bottles for an aqua-walkman
Immunity from ridicule
Improves your brains if you’re a fool
And I read in the Middle East
They traded some for a hostage release
Now if you’re bald it’ll give you hair
If you got straight trousers it’ll give you flares
Feeling up you’ll get depressed
Out of style here’s a brand new dress
The stuff we sell is just the best
Passing all consumer test
Days of heaven nights of sin
Voodoo stick and sharks fin
When all around you seems like hell
Just one sip will make you well
Multipurpose in a jar
If you ain’t ill it’ll fix your car
In days of yore for all bad feelings
Washing socks and stripping ceilings
Nowadays its used medicinally
For all known human malady
the place where Canadian law enforcement officers keep their savings.
Montebank.
excellent and i understood it on the first try before very much coffee was consumed!
The Kenyan-born faker’s a mountebank
But it took five years for the clown to tank
Amidst hubris and lies
Obamacare dies
Music to my ears: the last sound—a clank!
See, now I would have said that that is where they get new Mounties from whenever they need more.
There can be no other homework, after that.
Keep me on the list, but please explain why EVERY “Word for the Day” brings that montebank, Obama, to mind?
Ooooops! Mountebank
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