# "Quack" term for phony doctors **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 7, 2000, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quack-term-for-phony-doctors/24851 "2000-07-07T14:18:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2000, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quack-term-for-phony-doctors/24851/1 "2000-07-07T14:18:07Z")
I was reading an online article about homeopathic remedies, magnetic remedies, and other “quack” medicine when I thought - why “quack”? How did phony medicine and phony doctors come to be referred to as “Quackery” and “quacks”? ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2000, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quack-term-for-phony-doctors/24851/2 "2000-07-07T14:48:47Z")
my WAG is it may refer to the sound a duck makes and it means the guy who sold it just talked empty talk , with no substance. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2000, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quack-term-for-phony-doctors/24851/3 "2000-07-07T15:30:40Z")
A quick look at [http://www.dictionary.com](http://www.dictionary.com) edifies us thusly: > [@](#): > > \*\*An untrained person who pretends to be a physician and dispenses medical advice and treatment. [Short for quacksalver.] \*\* So what’s a quacksalver? > [@](#): > > \*\*quacksalver \Quack"sal\*ver, n. [D. kwakzalver; cf. kwakzalven to quack or boast of one’s salves. See > Quack, Salve, n.] One who boasts of his skill in medicines and salves, or of the efficacy of his > prescriptions; a charlatan; a quack; a mountebank. [Obs.] --Burton. \*\* I don’t subscribe to the OED, which I infinitely prefer as a source for word origins (snob that I am!) but I think this gives a pretty good idea. Besides, the OED once told me _who, what,_ and _where_ were once spelled with the letter _Q_. How cool is that? ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2000, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quack-term-for-phony-doctors/24851/4 "2000-07-08T02:04:32Z")
**quack** English has two words _quack_…_Quack_ ‘person claiming to be a doctor’ [17] is short for an earlier _quacksalver_, which etymologically denoted ‘someone who prattles on or boasts about the efficacy of his remedies.’ It was borrowed from early modern Dutch _quacksalver_, a compound formed from the now obsolete _quacken_ ‘chatter, prattle’ and _salf_, the Dutch relative of English _salve_. –_Dictionary of Word Origins_, John Ayto So, apparently we owe Coldfire’s ancestors for the word. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2000, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quack-term-for-phony-doctors/24851/5 "2000-07-08T17:34:07Z")
Indeed! Think how cumbersome it would be to say “idiot moron fake doctor who couldn’t cure the cold from an ice cube if his life depended on it” every time. _Dankje wel_, \*\*Coldfire{/b]! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2000, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quack-term-for-phony-doctors/24851/6 "2000-07-08T23:46:43Z")
We owe a lot of other words to Coldie, too, for that matter: If I recall correctly, modern Dutch is the closest relative to Anglo-Saxon of any living language.