| 释义 |
▪ I. mountebank, n.|ˈmaʊntɪbæŋk|
Forms: 6 mounterbanck, mountbanke, mountebancke, 6–7 mountebanke, -iban(c)k(e, 7 mountabanke, -ebanque, -ebanc(k, montabanke, -eban(c)ke, -ebank, Sc. muntibank, (montibanchi pl.), monte-banke, mowntibanck, 8 mountabanck, 7–mountebank.
[ad. It. montambanco, montimbanco, contracted form of the older monta in banco (Florio), lit. ‘mount-on-bench’ (monta imperative of montare mount v., banco bench). Cf. saltimbanco.
Florio 1598 gives montar' in banco (lit. ‘to mount on a bench’) ‘to plaie the mountibanke’. Godefr. has one instance of OF. montenbancque, and Sherwood 1632 gives F. monte-banc as the rendering of mountebank.]
1. An itinerant quack who from an elevated platform appealed to his audience by means of stories, tricks, juggling, and the like, in which he was often assisted by a professional clown or fool.
1577[see 6 below]. a1586Sidney Apol. Poetry (Arb.) 61 Poets..are almost in as good reputation, as the Mountibancks at Venice. 1605Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. x. §2. 39 Men..will often preferre a Mountabanke or Witch, before a learned Phisitian. 1672[H. Stubbe] Rosemary & Bayes 2 If you will now examine this new book, it will appear like a mountebank's ball. 1714Gay Sheph. Week Sat. 83 The mountebank now treads the stage, and sells His pills, his balsams, and his ague-spells. 1871Rossetti Last Confession 502 A poor painted mountebank was playing tricks and shouting in a crowd.
attrib.1713Swift Frenzy of J. Dennis Wks. 1755 III. i. 147 He hath told others..that he had seen me upon a mountebank stage in Moorfields.
2. fig. An impudent pretender to skill or knowledge, a charlatan; one who resorts to degrading means to obtain notoriety. So to play the mountebank.
1589Nashe Pasquill's Counter-C. A iij b, To discredite the Phisitions of their soules vnto them, and to suffer euerie Martin and Mounte-bancke to practise on them. 1610Boys Expos. Dom. Epist. & Gosp. Wks. (1622) iii He that will not be a mountaine in Christs way, must not bee a mount-banke of his owne vertue. 1624Wotton in Reliq. (1672) 545 Upon the Design you must play the Mountebank. And tell the Duke, that [etc.]. a1704T. Brown Two Oxford Schol. Wks. 1730 I. 2 Nature has fitted me pretty well to be one of these godly Mountebanks. 1817Coleridge ‘Blessed are ye’ 24 The Mountebanks and Zanies of Patriotism. 1877Mrs. Forrester Mignon I. 33 One can hardly wonder at the women when the men make such asses and mountebanks of themselves.
†3. = mountebankery. Obs.
1638Penit. Conf. vii. (1657) 154 O Devillish Mountebanke! by which Spiritual kind of Cosenage many are perswaded. 1722De Foe Plague (1756) 277 As for Quackery and Mountebank, of which the Town was so full [etc.].
4. The short-tailed African kite, Helotarsus ecaudatus (Cent. Dict. 1890).
5. appositive. (quasi-adj.) That is a mountebank; characteristic of a mountebank.
1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. iii. These Mount-bank Chirurgians. 1614Latham Falconry To Rdr., I could haue vsed a more mountebanque preface. 1852Gladstone Glean. IV. ii. 141 Theatrical, not to say charlatan and mountebank, politics.
6. Comb.
1577Stanyhurst Descr. Irel. ii. 8/2 in Holinshed, He shoulde haue gone shotfree with his complices, and haue made in Mounterbanckwyse the most he coulde of his wares. 1654Whitlock Zootomia 46 How easily might I here digresse in Satyre against Mountebanck-making Patients. 1727De Foe Syst. Magic i. iii. (1840) 68 They were counted the best and wisest men, who, mountebank like, could show most tricks.
Hence ˈmountebankish a., worthy of a mountebank. ˈmountebankism, the practice or method of a mountebank. † ˈmountebankly adv., after the manner of a mountebank.
1619Purchas Microcosmus lviii. 562 Nature, by some Naturalists hath beene too Mounte-bankly magnified. 1653R. Sanders Physiogn. 50 An inclination to all sorts of Cheateries and Mountebankism. 1660Howell Parly Beasts 87 A Saturnian Merchant..whom..for som Hocos-pocos and Mountebankish tricks I transformed to a Fox. 1882Society 7 Oct. 14/2 If he is..able to stem the tide of musical mountebankism rampant at another series of..concerts.
▪ II. ˈmountebank, v.
[f. mountebank n.]
†1. trans. To prevail over (a person) by ‘mountebank’ persuasion. Obs.
1607Shakes. Cor. iii. ii. 132 Ile Mountebanke their Loues, Cogge their Hearts from them, and come home belou'd Of all the Trades in Rome. 1702De Foe Reform. Manners i. 124 With Eloquence endu'd To Mountebank the listning Multitude.
†2. To introduce by mountebank persuasions; to transform by mountebank trickery. Obs.
1647Ward Simp. Cobler 2 Men of Paracelsian parts..are fittest to Mountebanke his [Satan's] Chimistry into sicke Churches and weake Iudgements. 1702De Foe Reform. Manners i. 316 The wondring Bubbles stand amaz'd to see Their Money Mountebank'd to Mercury.
3. intr. To play the mountebank. Usually with it.
1814Byron Let. to Moore 9 Apr., I..will mountebank it no longer. 1848Kingsley Saint's Trag. ii. v, Say if 'tis wise to..mountebank it in the public ways Till she becomes a jest? 1882Stevenson New Arab. Nts. (1884) 302, I find you mountebanking in a public café.
Hence ˈmountebanking vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1602Marston Ant. & Mel. Induct., Wks. 1856 I. 2, I play Balurdo, a wealthie mountbanking burgomasco's heire of Venice. 1705Dyet of Poland 17 The Quacking, Mountebanking Tool of State. 1860Thackeray Round. Papers, De Juventute 77 Do not suppose I am going..to indulge in moralities about buffoons..and mountebanking. |