CHARLATAN, or CHARLETAN, signifies an empiric or quack, who retails his medicines on a public stage, and draws people about him with his buffooneries, feats of activity, &c. The word, according to Calepine, comes from the Italian ceretano; of Caretum, a town near Spoleto in Italy, where these impostors are said to have first risen. Menage derives it from ciarlatano, and that from circulatorius or circulator, a quack.