# "Doctor", not "the doctor"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-not-the-doctor/923427>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 20, 2020, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-not-the-doctor/923427 "2020-10-20T18:37:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2020, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-not-the-doctor/923427/61 "2020-10-26T14:33:58Z")

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Plus, you know that as soon as you claim that such-and-such a wording wouldn’t ever be used in the US, someone here will provide not only quotes of people doing just that, but evidence that it is spiking in popularity 🙂

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**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2020, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-not-the-doctor/923427/62 "2020-10-26T21:56:15Z")

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Amen to _that_.

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**Author:** ![Ranch\_Dip](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranch_dip/32/5238_2.png) [@Ranch\_Dip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranch_Dip)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2020, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-not-the-doctor/923427/63 "2020-10-26T22:51:00Z")

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I work in a medical office in the US. When I am speaking to a patient, I will say “I can get a message to Dr Smith for you.” When I am addressing Dr Smith, or any of the other doctors in my office (we have eight) I refer to them as Doc. Good morning, doc. Doc, can I ask you a quick question. To them, I almost never use their name, with patients, I always use their name.

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2020, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-not-the-doctor/923427/64 "2020-10-26T23:00:19Z")

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> [@DPRK](#):
>
> Plus, you know that as soon as you claim that such-and-such a wording wouldn’t ever be used in the US, someone here will provide not only quotes of people doing just that, but evidence that it is spiking in popularity 🙂

There’s also a thing people do where _your dialect is weird and inconsistent and makes no sense, unlike my dialect, which is entirely logical_ (when in fact neither dialect has any special consistency). I wouldn’t say that’s exactly happening in this thread yet, but I feel like we’re on the periphery of it.

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