Conman

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who engages in fraudulent acts to take advantage of others An individual skilled in deception and trickery for personal benefit Someone who exploits the trust of others through dishonest schemes for profit
2. A person who deceives others through dishonest practices for personal gain
3. An individual who manipulates situations and people by lying or cheating to obtain money or advantage

Etymology: The word is a plain compound, built from "con," a verb meaning to swindle or trick, and "man," a person. Its first part traces back through Middle English "connen," meaning to know or to be able to do something, which came from Old English "cunnan," "to know." That older sense survives in the modern verb "con," where the trickster's knowledge of how to deceive is the point of the word. The idea of "knowing" slid into "knowing how to deceive" over time, so the trick the word names depends on the swindler understanding the victim better than the victim understands the swindler. The second element, "man," is the ordinary English word for a male or a person, and its Middle English form "-man" was used as a suffix in words that named people by what they did. "Conman" thus describes a person defined by that kind of knowing-deception.

Synonyms: swindler, fraudster, trickster, scammer, charlatan

Antonyms: honest person, trustworthy individual, good Samaritan, benefactor, philanthropist