watch out; he’s a real moo

Dangerous doctor; medically incompetent; scientifically unsound methods.

Why “quack”?

I mean, a lot of animals make a lot of sounds. Few of them health-related.
Did this start out as some weird “doc”/”duck” pun?

-- jimski, December 7, 2006, 11:05 pm

Hans Says:
December 8th, 2006 at 8:48 am
It’s a shortened form of quacksalver (Quacksalber in German), from an old Dutch word quacken which meant both “croak” and “brag”. The former evolved to the quack that ducks mean, and the latter evolved into “boast” and eventually “pretend”.
Kerry Says:
December 8th, 2006 at 8:54 am
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quackery

The word “quack” derives from “quacksalver,” an archaic word originally of Dutch origin (spelled kwakzalver in contemporary Dutch), meaning “boaster who applies a salve.” The correct meaning of the German word “quacksalber” is “questionable salesperson (literal translation: quack salver).”

Who knew? Wikipedia, that’s who.
jimski Says:
December 8th, 2006 at 9:12 am
So what you’re telling me is that the Dutch have a single word for “boaster who applies a salve.”

What the hell has been going on over there?

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