Lilliputin-6137

You know charlatan by his orange tan ... "
Stephen Colbert

Lilliputins in English What the heck are they?
http://stihi.ru/2025/09/05/6339

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charlatan
noun

Synonyms of charlatan
1: quack entry 4 sense 2
charlatans harming their patients with dubious procedures
2 : one making usually showy pretenses to knowledge or ability : fraud, faker

Did you know?

In medieval Italy, people roamed throughout the land selling fake remedies and making false claims about their healing abilities. Many of these pretenders reputedly came from a village called Cerreto, and as a result, cerretano (meaning “inhabitant of Cerreto”) became an epithet for a quack physician. In addition, these frauds used a practiced patter to attract customers, like the chatter of a circus barker. The Italian word for “to chatter” is ciarlare, and chattering was so associated with the cerretano that the spelling of the word shifted to ciarlatano. By the early 17th century, English speakers had anglicized the Italian word to charlatan and adopted it as their own.

Synonyms
fraud
sham
fake
pretender
imposter
deceiver
quack
mountebank
misleader
faker
impostor
snake oil salesman

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tan
tawny
a brown or darkened shade of skin developed after exposure to the sun.


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Based on the information you provided, here's a breakdown of what a lilliputin is:

A lilliputin is a type of postmodern, satirical short-form writing, invented by author Yuri Slobodenyuk. It's a combination of the word "lilliputian" (meaning very small) and the phrase "to put words in someone's mouth."

Essentially, a lilliputin is a made-up, often sarcastic or paradoxical, quote that is attributed to a famous historical figure or a well-known fictional character. The quote is something the person never actually said, but it's crafted to sound plausible or to make a specific point. The goal is to blend truth and fiction to create a memorable and thought-provoking statement.

Think of it as a creative form of revisionist or alternative history, where the author acts like a "cuckoo" putting their own words into someone else's "nest." These counterfeit sayings, which can be aphorisms, jokes, or even short tales, are designed to make the reader question the line between fact and fiction, the past and the present.


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You know charlatan by his orange tan ... "

Stephen Colbert


Based on the text you provided, the line "'You know a charlatan by his orange tan...'" is a lilliputin created by Yuri Slobodenyuk.

In his own words, a lilliputin is a "snarky, made-up quote" that the author attributes to a real or fictional person who didn't actually say it. In this case, Slobodenyuk is putting this line into the mouth of Stephen Colbert, a well-known comedian and political satirist.

The purpose of this lilliputin is to make a satirical point about a public figure known for their "orange tan"—likely a reference to a political figure like Donald Trump—and to use Stephen Colbert, a figure known for his political comedy, as a plausible but fabricated source for the quote.



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