Etymology

mountebank

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Today it means: One who sells dubious medicines. Full definition →

Italian montambanco
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The story

  1. Italian · borrowed frommontambanco“quack who mounts a bench to hawk his wares”
  2. English todaymountebank

From archaic Italian montambanco (“quack who mounts a bench to hawk his wares”), contracted from monta-in-banco (“mount on bench”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.