snake oil peddler

[Do228]

Which of these terms can be used for people who sell overpriced health products out of the trunk and promise that they can cure any disease?

snake oil peddler
highbinder
carpetbagger
legerdemainist
gyp artist
fiddler
juggler
diddler

 

[emsr2d2]

In what situation do you plan to use whichever word you choose?

 

[Rover_KE]

Have you noticed that I keep moving these posts of yours out of Ask a Teacher as they are of no interest to the average ESL student?

 

[GoesStation]

One word alone is insufficient. Go with diddling, highbinding legerdemainist.

 

[probus]

Only snake oil salesman is in current use. The others all sound dated.

 

[GoesStation]

Only snake oil salesman is in current use. The others all sound dated.

Or even invented. I suppose Do228 found them somewhere, but a quick look at Google ngrams would have shown that a couple of them at least are practically unknown and nearly all are a hundred years or more out of date.

Note that "juggler" is a common word for a person who can juggle, and "fiddler" means fiddle player; violinist. I'm confident that none of the ngram results for that word come from anything other than a musical context.

Do228, please don't waste our time with any more such absurd queries. Look the words up first. If you find credible instances of their use in the context you're interested in, feel free to ask for advice.

 

[probus]

One word alone is insufficient. Go with diddling, highbinding legerdemainist.

������

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Which of these terms can be used for people who sell overpriced health products out of the trunk and promise that they can cure any disease?

snake oil peddler This is correct.
highbinder This is too general. Look it up.
carpetbagger This doesn't fit at all. Look it up.
legerdemainist This is doesn't fit (look it up!), and I've never heard anyone use it.
gyp artist This is too general, and it insults gypsies.
fiddler This is a musician.
juggler This is a person who tosses a lot of things in the air at once while riding a unicycle and spinning plates on sticks.
diddler This doesn't fit, either, and I've never heard anyone use it. Maybe the British do. Look it up!

This is fun, but you really should be using a dictionary.

 

[jutfrank]

It's obvious that Do228 is partly joking, partly trolling us. At least it's slightly amusing, most of the time.

 

[GoesStation]

It's obvious that Do228 is partly joking, partly trolling us. At least it's slightly amusing, most of the time.

It feels more like just plain trolling to me.

 

[jutfrank]

It feels more like just plain trolling to me.

I think it's mostly in the spirit of fun.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

I think it's mostly in the spirit of fun.

I have no idea what you're talking about.

 

[Rover_KE]

Do228, don't post any more threads of this nature until you can give a satisfactory answer to ems's question in post #2.