Why is a doctor of medicine who is no good called a quack?
To begin at the beginning, “quack” has been used to mean the sound a duck makes since the 16th century. “Quack” is what linguists call an “echoic” or “imitative” word — it arose simply because folks thought it was a good approximation of the actual sound it describes. At about the same time that people decided that ducks “quack,” they also began to use “quack” to describe the sound made by itinerant patent medicine salesmen made as they hawked their wares. These charlatans, who boasted endlessly about the miraculous properties of the ointments and potions they sold, were known as “quacksalvers” — they “quacked” about their “salves.” The term “quacksalver” was quickly shortened in common usage, giving us “quack Of course, back there in the 16th and 17th centuries, medical science was in its infancy, and the field was awash in fakers and charlatans of all stripes. The term “quack” was fairly quickly expanded from salve-peddlers to include fraudulent “doctors” who advertised their abili
