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“quack”
quack
Someone who falsely claims to possess medical skill and the ability to provide proper treatment.
This entry is located in the following unit:
Science and Technology Words from the Ancient Past to the Present, Part 1
(page 5)
1. An individual who pretends to be a doctor, administering medical advise; an untrained medical imposter: When legitimate doctors couldn't help his painful back trouble, Mark resorted to quacks for help.
2. A charlatan, a phony or a fake: Dana realized that the psychiatrist was really a quack and so she decided to go to the clinic for help.
3. Etymology: a quack or "fake doctor", is a short form of quacksalver, from Dutch kwakzalver, "charlatan".
2. A charlatan, a phony or a fake: Dana realized that the psychiatrist was really a quack and so she decided to go to the clinic for help.
3. Etymology: a quack or "fake doctor", is a short form of quacksalver, from Dutch kwakzalver, "charlatan".
Dutch kwakken means "to quack", so the word may originally have meant "someone who quacks boastfully, like a duck, about his salve or other medical remedies".
This entry is located in the following unit:
English Words in Action, Group Q
(page 1)
A unit related to:
“quack”
(Italian, "chatter, prattle" > French: deceive, deceiver; swindle, swindler; fraud, quack, chiseler)