Origins of the term "Quack"

Hi all.

Does anyone know where the term “quack” (for a doctor who is, shall we say, a-not-a-so-good at his trade) came from?

Shad

From the American Heritage dictionary, it derives for “quacksalver.” The etymology of “quacksalver” says “. . . from Middle Dutch quacsalven, to cure with home remedies, from quac-, unguent + *salven * to salve.”

So the original form meant someone who applied a unguent to wounds, changed into meaning someone who used home remedies, then dropped the “salver” and meant an incompentent doctor.

The OED has first cite in 1659.

“Madam, I am not a shyster. A shyster is an incompetent lawyer. I am a quack.” – Robert Preston in S.O.B.

“I need an unguent” – Fargo


“East is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does.” – Marx

Read “Sundials” in the new issue of Aboriginal Science Fiction. www.sff.net/people/rothman

Morris’s Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins gives a similar origin, from quacksalver, one who quacks loudly about his salves, makes a lot of noise about his remedies.

From a duck, where else?

Why a duck?

(Sorry…sometimes I can’t help myself)
http://www.geocities.com/~jbenz/marxbros.html


JB
Lex Non Favet Delicatorum Votis