It was a chilling morning of December. A newly married couple, Peter and Maria have visited Rajasthan for their honeymoon vacation. While the couple were strolling, and exploring the marvellous architecture of Amber Fort, Maria saw Elephants entering from Hathi Darwaja of the fort. Peter had been to India several times for his business meetings, whereas for Maria it was new experience altogether. After watching people taking the joyous elephant rides, she couldn’t control her excitement and said,
Maria: Hey Peter, see those tourists out there!!
Peter: Maria, are you referring to the tourists riding on elephants?
Maria: Yes baby, see at those mammoths. It would be fun to ride on them. Isn’t it?
Peter: I agree with you baby. Come let’s cherish this vacation forever.
Peter went to the stall, where elephant rides are being booked.
In Rajasthan, it is a common practice to increase the price of a product or rides to at least 5times, whenever a foreigner arrives as they believe since they aren’t well versed with the local price, they can cheat them. On arriving at the stall, Peter inquired,
Peter: Namaste!! Give me two tickets for Elephant rides.
Since Peter was a foreigner, the vendor practiced the same rudimentary cheating tricks
Vendor: Namaste Sir ji!! Here are your two tickets!
Peter: How much is the cost?
Vendor: Rs15,000 each sir. So, total amount is Rs30,000.
Since Peter was ingenious, he was wise enough to relate the local price, from his earlier trips to India. He stated
Peter: Bhaiya I have been to India before. So, stop your chicanery practices with me! Cheat some other foreigners!
On listening to this, the vendor resorted immediately,
Vendor: Sorry Sir! Here is your two tickets, Rs3000 each.
Peter took the tickets and enjoyed the ride with her companion!
Since Peter was ingenious he was saved from the chicanery practices of the vendor.
Hope you enjoyed the story! So, folks Gear up! As here in this chapter you will learn more words based on clever and cheat people.
Chicanery
Meaning: Clever, dishonest talk or behavior that is used to deceive people.
Usually, the term chicanery is used in the fields of politics and finance.
Instead of being truthful on his campaign for Governor, John resorted to chicanery.
Let us expose that business for its financial chicanery and reveal how they waste our tax dollars.
In 1665, English writer John Evelyn in a letter to Sir Peter Wyche lamented that “we have hardly any words that do so fully express the French clinquant, naiveté, chicaneries.”
Evelyn and Wyche were members of a group called the Royal Society, which had formed a committee emulating the French Academy for “improving the English language.”
We can surmise that, in Evelyn’s estimation, the addition of chicanery to English from French was an improvement
What most people call intelligence is merely deftness in some technical activity, or cunning in business or political chicanery.
Clandestine
Meaning: Plans executed with secrecy or concealment, especially for purposes of subversion or deception; Surreptitious.In the prison, some of the inmates have developed a clandestine means of selling drugs.The words clandestine and surreptitious are although synonyms but it cannot be used interchangeably. Clandestine is usually referred for secretive plans whereas Surreptitious is usually referred for secretive movement or actions. At a clandestine meeting, the two spies exchanged secret information. Furtive, stealthy, sneaky are few of the other synonyms of Clandestine. Since the police are hunting Juan, he must move around in a clandestine manner.
Infidelity
Meaning: The acts or fact of having a romantic or sexual relationship with someone other than one’s husband, wife, or partner. According to the official papers, Amy filed for divorce because of her husband’s marital infidelity. So guys, next time your husband, wife or partner tries to cheat you, rather then using the cliché, “You cheated me” Try using this line, “Don’t you start that infidelity stuff on me.” Fide means to believe, so fidelity is to believe someone. Fidelity is an antonym of infidelity. Phil was crushed when the detective showed him graphic photos of his wife’s infidelity.
Charlatan
Meaning: A person who pretends to have skills or knowledge that they do not have, especially in medicine
A charlatan is one who pretends to possess knowledge he or she lacks.
From the 16th century Italian charlatano “a quack,” the usage of charlatan has not shifted much.
Imposter, cheat, or pretender are synonyms for Charlatan.
Charlatans are usually marked by the elaborate schemes they cook up. Russian playwright Anton Chekhov said, “No psychologist should pretend to understand what he does not understand…Only fools and charlatans know everything and understand nothing.” Although Amber had no intention of repaying her loans, she still acted like a charlatan and promised to pay back her lenders.
Treachery
Meaning: Treachery refers to harmful acts you might do to someone who trusts you.
Fake labels, replicas and other treacherous tricks are used by the wheeler dealers to make a fast buck.
Treachery can also refer to being disloyal to your native country, but the word treason is more common in this sense.
On the 5th of November the army, misled by treacherous guides and thirst-stricken, was ambuscaded in dense forest at Kashgil. Treachery is from Middle English trecherie, from Old French, from trichier “to trick or cheat.” The English word trick is from trikier, a slightly different spelling that was used in some dialects of Old French. Drivers are asked to stay home and avoid the treacherous icy roads.
Bamboozle
Meaning: Bamboozle means to trick or deceive someone, often by confusing
Eve got bamboozled by the salesperson to buy a more expensive model.
Dupe, Hoodwink, Swindle, Humbug are few of the synonyms of bamboozle which means to cheat or trick someone. The noun is bamboozlement.
The waiter tried to bamboozle Sara into giving him extra money by saying the tip had not been included in the check. The swindler would bamboozle wealthy women by selling them fake jewelry at hefty prices.
Subterfuge
Meaning: Deception by artifice or stratagem to conceal, escape, or evade.
Propagandists who use a kind of photographic subterfuge, superimposing one image on another to create a false “reality”.
Though “subterfuge” is a synonym of “deception,” “fraud,” “double-dealing,” and “trickery,” there’s nothing tricky about the word’s etymology.
English language borrowed the word and meaning from Late Latin subterfugium. That word contains the Latin prefix subter-, meaning “secretly,” which derives from the adverb subter, meaning “underneath.” The “-fuge” portion comes from the Latin verb fugere, which means “to flee” and which is also the source of words such as “fugitive” and “refuge,” among others. Investigators often resort to subterfuge to make criminals admit their wrongdoing. The FTC fined the makers of Ab Circle for promoting strong weight loss claims in the form of subterfuge advertising. When my girlfriend asks me, “Does this make me look fat?” I subterfuge by saying “No”.
Finagle
Meaning: To obtain, arrange, or achieve by indirect and usually deceitful methods.
A con man finagled my neighbor out of four hundred dollars.
Let me look at my schedule and see if, I can’t finagle a visit to the museum.
Creative college students can finagle summer jobs, especially unpaid ones, in almost any field through perseverance and networking.
Chapter 3: From Uncultured to Cultured People
Chapter 7: Lets Learn About Clever and Cheat
Chapter 8: Future Prediction and Foretelling
Chapter 9: Top Class People – Achievers
Chapter 12: Angels in Disguise
Chapter 13: The Official Guide for Condemn
Chapter 14: No Human Being is Same
Chapter 15: Degree of Flattering
Chapter 17: Lets Learn about foolish people
Chapter 19: Are you a Braveheart
Chapter 22: Learn About Bad Tempered People
Chapter 24: People Are the Craziest Animals!