# The Good Doctor \[phrase origin\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 5, 2013, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-doctor-phrase-origin/652121 "2013-03-05T21:47:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Andypiehead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Andypiehead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andypiehead)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-doctor-phrase-origin/652121/1 "2013-03-05T21:47:07Z")
Hi Everyone Ever since my father-in-law pondered the question, I have searched desperately (and in vain) for the origin(s) of the phrase “the Good doctor”. Is it to do with the Gospel of Luke, who was a physician? Is it connected to (the good) Dr Jekyll as opposed to (the bad) Mr Hyde? I have, as yet, found no DEFINITIVE answer to explain the origin(s) of this very well-known phrase. If anyone can help, I (and my father-in-law) would be most grateful. Many thanks. ---
**Author:** ![FrankJBN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@FrankJBN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrankJBN)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-doctor-phrase-origin/652121/2 "2013-03-05T21:48:52Z")
Neil Simon wrote the play “The Good Doctor” 40 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-doctor-phrase-origin/652121/3 "2013-03-05T22:38:45Z")
> [@FrankJBN](#): > > Neil Simon wrote the play “The Good Doctor” 40 years ago. He may have, but the phrase goes back hundreds of years so it can’t have anything to do with the origin. Google or Wikipedia should have been the first stop, because an answer is [right there](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_good_doctor_%28phrase%29). > [@](#): > > The phrase “the good doctor” is a cliché which is commonly used in reference to any physician, sometimes with an ironic tone. Its first use was almost certainly by Shakespeare, at the end of Act V, Scene 1 of Macbeth: > > ``` > Doctor: ...So, good night: > > My mind she has mated, and amazed my sight. > I think, but dare not speak. > > ``` > > Gentlewoman: Good night, good doctor. (Exeunt). ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-doctor-phrase-origin/652121/4 "2013-03-05T22:40:32Z")
Who? ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-doctor-phrase-origin/652121/5 "2013-03-05T23:29:13Z")
Yes? ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-doctor-phrase-origin/652121/6 "2013-03-05T23:49:57Z")
Third base! ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-doctor-phrase-origin/652121/7 "2013-03-06T00:05:25Z")
[QUOTE=Wikipedia (as quoted above by Exapno Mapcase)] Its first use was almost certainly by Shakespeare, at the end of Act V, Scene 1 of Macbeth: Doctor: …So, good night: My mind she has mated, and amazed my sight. I think, but dare not speak. Gentlewoman: Good night, good doctor. (Exeunt). [/QUOTE] And yet, the quote cited doesn’t actually use the phrase “ **the** good doctor.” :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-doctor-phrase-origin/652121/8 "2013-03-06T03:04:13Z")
St.Luke is the “beloved physician” (named so by St.Paul). So it can’t be him. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-doctor-phrase-origin/652121/9 "2013-03-06T03:44:18Z")
Title edited to better indicate subject. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-doctor-phrase-origin/652121/10 "2013-03-06T13:51:42Z")
Note that “good” as a general honorific was used a lot hundreds of years ago. “Good Sir.” “Good Wife” (which became “Goody”). Etc. It’s use today is more of a mild mocking form. ---
**Author:** ![FrankJBN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@FrankJBN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrankJBN)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-doctor-phrase-origin/652121/11 "2013-03-06T14:38:46Z")
I would dispute the wikipedia article for the reasons given above, in particular of course it is not the phrase “the good doctor” which plainly is not a form of address while “Good night, good doctor” is. One might as well attribute it to anyone who said “Dr. bart is a good doctor.” While wikipedia idenitifes it as a cliche, I can bring to mind very few usages of the phrase - none in fact. Certainly searching google for it brings up the play and a new movie almost to the exclusion of other uses. How does the OP see it as “a veery well known phrase”? ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-doctor-phrase-origin/652121/12 "2013-03-06T15:18:00Z")
> [@FrankJBN](#): > > How does the OP see it as “a very well known phrase”? Just off the top of my head, I’ve frequently heard it applied to [Isaac Asimov](http://www.bewilderingstories.com/issue8/asimov.html), [Hunter S. Thompson](http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7887639/looking-back-hunter-s-thompson-classic-story-kentucky-derby), and [The Doctor](http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/8cff/) from Doctor Who. It’s common enough. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-doctor-phrase-origin/652121/13 "2013-03-06T15:44:20Z")
The Good Doctor" is also the standard epithet for Dr. Watson in the fan writings about the Holmes stories, although he is never referred to that way. Oddly, the phrase is used by Conan Doyle in The Hound of Baskervilles about Dr. Mortimer. An [ngrams search](http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=the+good+doctor&year_start=1700&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=) shows that it has been in fairly constant use since 1740, though that’s probably an artifact of the database since I can find a [1655 usage](http://books.google.com/books?id=vNGYxqgVJZcC&pg=PA166&dq=%22the+good+doctor%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=kWM3UeiOB8HyyAG38oDABw&ved=0CD8Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=%22the%20good%20doctor%22&f=false) that is obviously in the same sense. Ngrams isn’t too good for earlier works. “The good doctor,” like many literary allusions, may not be that familiar to today’s readers but it has, as I said, hundreds of years of history in literature. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-doctor-phrase-origin/652121/14 "2013-03-06T17:22:28Z")
Prof. Robert Crater rather archly refers to Dr. Leonard H. McCoy as “the good doctor” in the very first NBC-aired episode of _Star Trek_, “The Man Trap” (aired September 8, 1966). [http://www.chakoteya.net/startrek/6.htm](http://www.chakoteya.net/startrek/6.htm) ---
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-doctor-phrase-origin/652121/15 "2013-03-06T17:39:00Z")
When I saw the title of the thread, Isaac Asimov is the first person I thought of. ---
**Author:** ![FrankJBN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@FrankJBN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrankJBN)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2013, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-doctor-phrase-origin/652121/16 "2013-03-07T16:52:38Z")
"Just off the top of my head, I’ve frequently heard it applied to Isaac Asimov, Hunter S. Thompson, and The Doctor from Doctor Who. It’s common enough. " Actually no - being applied to three people as an honorific does not make a phrase “common enough” or indeed even a phrase. I have indeed heard the fictional Dr Who referred to in this way, but hardly ever have read it connected to Asimov or Thompson. I read in fact that this was a self-claimed nick name for both of the latter. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2013, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-doctor-phrase-origin/652121/17 "2013-03-07T16:55:16Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > Just off the top of my head, I’ve frequently heard it applied to [Isaac Asimov](http://www.bewilderingstories.com/issue8/asimov.html), [Hunter S. Thompson](http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7887639/looking-back-hunter-s-thompson-classic-story-kentucky-derby), and [The Doctor](http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/8cff/) from Doctor Who. It’s common enough. Yes. When I see the phrase (capitalized), I first think of Dr. Asimov. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2013, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-doctor-phrase-origin/652121/18 "2013-03-07T17:10:36Z")
> [@FrankJBN](#): > > Actually no - being applied to three people as an honorific does not make a phrase “common enough” or indeed even a phrase. Just to be clear, people are giving examples of some famous people who had the phrase applied to them on a regular basis. They are not saying this is the only time the phrase is used. In fact, the phrase has been used by thousands for centuries, as the Google Books records show. Your lack of personal awareness of the phrase means exactly nothing. To me, it’s an old and famous phrase, instantly recognizable. Our individual experiences don’t earn a vote each or cancel one another out. You may be familiar with a phrase I’m not. Only the research matters, and here the research is overwhelming.