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moun·te·bank

(mountə-băngk′)

1. A hawker of quack medicines who attracts customers with stories, jokes, or tricks.

2. A flamboyant charlatan.

[Italian montambanco, from the phrase monta im banco, one gets up onto the bench : monta, one gets up, third person sing. present tense of montare, to get up (from Vulgar Latin *montāre; see MOUNT¹) + in, on, onto (from Latin; see IN-²) + banco, bench (variant of banca, from Old Italian, bench, table, from Old High German bank).]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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