charlatans

Noun

charlatan (plural charlatans)

1. (obsolete) A mountebank, someone who addresses crowds in the street; (especially), an itinerant seller of medicines or drugs.
   • The poor foreigner, more dead than alive, answered that he was an Italian charlatan, who had practised with some reputation in Padua […].1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC
2. A malicious trickster; a fake person, especially one who deceives for personal profit.
   • “If there’s something you don’t understand,” urged Dr. Breed, “ask Dr. Horvath to explain it. He’s very good at explaining.” He turned to me. “Dr. Hoenikker used to say that any scientist who couldn’t explain to an eight-year-old what he was doing was a charlatan.”
   • “Then I’m dumber than an eight-year-old,” Miss Pefko mourned. “I don’t even know what a charlatan is.”1963 March 18, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., chapter 15, in Cat’s Cradle

   Synonyms:

   trickster, swindler, scammer, bamboozler, bouncer, bullshitter, cheat, cheater, cogger, cony-catcher