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  • 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.

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 57. The word origin today is quack.

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