The word for today is…

mountebank – (noun)
1 : a person who sells quack medicines from a platform
2 : a boastful unscrupulous pretender

Source : Merriam -Webster

Etymology : Mountebank derives from the Italian montimbanco, which was formed by combining the verb “montare” (“to mount”), the preposition “in” (converted to im, meaning “in” or “on”), and the noun “banco” (“bench”). Put these components together and you can deduce the literal origins of “mountebank” as someone mounted on a bench – the “bench” being the platform on which charlatans from the 16th and 17th centuries would stand to sell their phony medicines. Mountebanks often included various forms of light entertainment on stage in order to attract customers. Later, extended uses of “mountebank” referred to someone who falsely claims to have knowledge about a particular subject or a person who simply pretends to be something he or she is not in order to gain attention.

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David is a retired surgeon originally from London who came to New Zealand twenty-seven years ago after being delayed in Singapore for thirteen years on leaving the UK. He was coerced into studying Latin...