different between pettifogger vs charlatan

English

Etymology

petty + fogger

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?p?t??f???/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?p?t??f????/, /?p?t??f????/
• Rhymes: -???(r)

Noun

pettifogger (plural pettifoggers)

1. Someone who quibbles over trivia, and raises petty, annoying objections and sophistry.
   • 1809, Washington Irving, Knickerbocker's History of New York, ch. 39:

     Hence the cunning measure of appointing as ambassador some political pettifogger skilled in delays, sophisms, and misapprehensions, and dexterous in the art of baffling argument.

2. An unscrupulous or unethical lawyer, especially one of lesser skill.

   Synonym: shyster

   • 1822, Sir Walter Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel, ch. 11:

     "An inn, or a tavern . . . these are places where greasy citizens take pipe and pot, where the knavish pettifoggers of the law spunge on their most unhappy victims.

   • 1885, The Bay State Monthly, Vol. 3, No. 6:

     . . .yet he has never sought by browbeating and other arts of the pettifogger, to confuse, baffle, and bewilder a witness. . . .

   • 1926 June 28, "National Affairs: Blind Mans Huff," Time:

     "Donald Hughes, well known in Minneapolis as a conscienceless shyster, was placed in charge of the case. . . . Mr. Edgerton, a high class, reputable lawyer, was called in of counsel from another city to lend respectability to the crooked, unprincipled, blackmailing pettifogger, Hughes."

Related terms

• pettifog
• pettifoggery

Translations

English

Etymology

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).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /????l?t?n/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /????l?t?n/
• Hyphenation: char?la?tan

Noun

charlatan (plural charlatans)

1. (obsolete) A mountebank, someone who addresses crowds in the street; (especially), an itinerant seller of medicines or drugs.
   • 1751, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, vol I, ch. 38:

     The poor foreigner, more dead than alive, answered that he was an Italian charlatan, who had practised with some reputation in Padua […] .

2. A malicious trickster; a fake person, especially one who deceives for personal profit.

   Synonyms: trickster, swindler; see also Thesaurus:deceiver

   • 2018 (June), Ian Murray in The Independent

     That this disgraceful charlatan holds one of the great offices of state in this country should be a source of constant shame and embarrassment to the Prime Minister.

Related terms

• charlatanism
• charlatanry

Translations

French

Etymology

From Italian ciarlatano. Pejorative meaning first recorded 1668.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?a?.la.t??/

Noun

charlatan m (plural charlatans, feminine charlatane)

1. (dated) a streetseller of medicines
2. a charlatan (trickster)
3. a quack

Further reading

• “charlatan” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Middle French

Noun

charlatan m (plural charlatans)

1. a street-seller of medicines

Descendants

• ? English: charlatan
• French: charlatan

Swedish

Etymology

From French charlatan. Cognate of English charlatan, German Scharlatan.

Noun

charlatan c

1. fraudster, deceiver

Declension

Derived terms

• charlataneri

References

• charlatan in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• charlatan in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• charlatan in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)