Etymology

charlatan

char·la·tan
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Today it means: A mountebank, someone who addresses crowds in the street; (especially), an itinerant seller of medicines or drugs. Full definition →

Middle French charlatan ← Old Italian ciarlatano
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The story

  1. Old Italian · derived fromciarlatano“quack”
  2. Middle French · derived fromcharlatan
  3. English todaycharlatan

From Middle French charlatan, from Old Italian ciarlatano (“quack”), a blend of ciarlatore (“chatterer”) + cerretano (“hawker, quack”, literally “native of Cerreto”) (Cerreto di Spoleto being a village in Umbria, known for its quacks).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.