English Explanatory Dictionary

Potemkin village

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. Any false construct devised to disguise a shortcoming or improve appearances.

Word forms

Potemkin village Potemkin villages

Etymology

Calque of Russian потёмкинская деревня (potjómkinskaja derévnja), named for purported fake settlements erected at the direction of Russian minister Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin to fool Empress Catherine II during her visit to Crimea in 1787.

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