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, and the like. The word, according to Calepine, comes from the Italian ceretano, which signifies of or belonging to Ceretum, a town near Spoleto in Italy, where these impostors are said to have first appeared. Ménage, however, derives it from ciarlatalano, and that from circularis or circularia, a quack.