Charlatan

When a person is called a charlatan, pretending falsely to have a certain knowledge or specific skills. The Duden defines charlatan pejoratively as " someone [ s ], which simulates certain skills and other leads hoodwinked ". As charlatanism the behavior of a charlatan or the fib is called a charlatan.

Term origin and history

As origin of the term - are frequent synonyms, braggart, swindlers, impostors ' - is a fusion of the place name Cerreto and the Italian word ciarlare ( " babble " ) suspected. The Cerretani, inhabitants of the Italian town of Cerreto di Spoleto, were in the Middle Ages in the bad reputation as a tramp to pass through the area and to draw unsuspecting people with deceptions and frauds the money from his pocket. Accordingly, the term charlatan soon became synonymous for all country traveling people.

The historian Johann Burckhardt Menckestraße Latinized the popular term charlatan in his publication De Charlataneria Eruditorum ( " charlatanism of scholars " ) from the year 1713. This work he had another series of special publications to follow, namely the charlatanism of Physicians ( 1717 and 1719), the clergy ( 1735) and lawyers ( 1742).

Pierer 's Universal -Lexikon 1857 Charlatan defined as someone who

" Knows how to give themselves the appearance of erudition and wisdom and to draw by lower means the public attention studied, especially by these terms is a quack, which announces itself through puffery. A literary Ch is a writer who knows how to deceive without thorough studies, the work to other uses plagiarism and the public's opinion about his abilities and achievements. Therefore Charlantanerie, charlatanism ... "

Trivia

The opera by the Czech composer Pavel Haas Šarlatán was premiered in 1938; the literary model for formed Josef Winckler's novel about his time erroneously decried as quacks or quack Doctor Eisenbarth.