quack

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a fraudulent medical practitioner, or the sound a duck makes

   The so-called doctor was exposed as a quack selling useless tonics.

Simplified etymology

Quack as the sound of a duck is an imitation of that sound, recorded in this form from the late 16th century, though Middle English had queck. Quack meaning a fraudulent medical practitioner is shortened from 17th-century quacksalver, from Dutch quacken “talk foolishly” and salf “salve.”

In the 'fraud' sense, short for quacksalver, from Dutch kwakzalver ('hawker of salve'). In the duck sense, of imitative (onomatopoeic) origin.

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External links

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