Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 57. The word origin today is quack.
Now quack in the sense of like an untrained doctor or charlatan or
somebody who's like pretending to be a doctor and they're, they're saying that
he's not really a doctor. So they refer to him as a quack. Obviously the word
quack can also be the sound that a duck makes you know, because they make a sound...
A sound like quack, quack , quack , but there's no mystery there. We know why that word
means quack like from a duck. But why do we call the untrained or charlatan or
con man a quack ? Okay so let's take a look at the note here. So in our modern times
if we refer to someone as a quack, it usually refers to someone who practices
medicine or pretends to be a doctor or a physician usually in order to cheat
people or make a lot of money from them. Let's continue. We might also call him a
charlatan you know, like somebody who really is a lot like a con man to trick
people or someone who is an impostor as a medical professional, especially if they
don't really have a medical degree or a degree in any type of medicine,
especially if they are likely to do harm to the people that they treat. Then
they're even more likely refer to them as a quack. Okay. Let's continue. The
origin is believed to come from an old Dutch word quacksalver. Okay.
The idea was someone that quacks like a duck, as in boasting about some salve. All
right. Now we should also note this. In Dutch, quacken meant to boast or to brag
or croak. Croak also like a frog. So you're making a lot of noise to get
attention. Let's put it that way. So boasting about some salve or
medication that they were selling ... You know , that they were selling and its
claimed cures and benefits. Okay. So you know buy this. Trust us. This is really
good. It'll work to cure this and cure that and
cure this. All right. Let's continue. A salve , now a solve is a normal thing. A salve is a
medical cream you spread on your skin to reduce pain. So salves are normal. So
that's why they called him a quacksalver So he was bragging
about his salve, his medication. Basically so that's where the idea, where it comes
from. All right. Let's continue. They say the word may be used by medical
professionals today to discredit anyone they disagree with. So here you have to
be careful though because maybe there are some like maybe, let's say people who
are practicing holistic medicine you know, they may not be the standard you
know, go to the medical degree and you know our modern Western science,
But sometimes a lot of people who are practicing holistic medicine are
successful in some of the people they treat. But if the medical industry
doesn't like their success or they think that they might be competition with
their success, don't be surprised if they also called them a quack. And where I
don't know that would be unfair to kind of call them a quack if they're if
they're truly having success in the people that are treating. So you got to be
careful today. So if it's really used with somebody who's trying to cheat
people then I guess the term is deserved. But it could be used the other way too.
So just be aware of that. All right. Let's, let's look at several
examples of how it may be used. All right example number one. Quacks were very
common during the 1700's and 1800's Yeah. That's when the laws were very loose or
not very strict about these guys going around claiming that they were selling
things that benefitted people. They treated them but they really didn't have the
training behind them. Okay and number two. The medical industry labeled him a quack.
All right. Now this could be a situation where maybe somebody was a holistic
doctor maybe it was actually having success and maybe he's competing with
the medical industry and maybe maybe they're calling him a quack in kind of
an unfair way or a jealous way. Or ,or a way they consider him to be competition. Or
number three here. Some quacks were referred to as snake oil salesmen.
That's really bad because we often see this a lot of the cowboy movies or
something. Some guy came to a town and he's standing there and you know , he's
got this bottle in his hand that looks like God knows what's in it ? You know
could be some sort of alcohol or shoe polish or something and he's telling people
that if they drink this they can cure this and that and cure almost everything like a
cure-all they say it will cure everything to try to sell it. A lot of these guys were
tricksters. They deserved the name. Either quack or snake oil salesman. That's
another way that they refer to them. All right and let's look at the ... You know,
just like we said the third one. So some quarks were referred to as snake oil
salesmen. All right. That's pretty much it. That kind of covers it. Anyway I hope you
got it. I hope you found it to be informative. Thank you for your time. Bye-
bye.