Other forms: quacks
A quack is somebody who falsely claims medical skill. A quack doctor, quack remedies, dismissed as a quack.
It is short for quacksalver, an old Dutch word for somebody who quacks — boasts loudly — about their salves. The duck sense is a separate imitative word. Quackery still costs lives, mostly by persuading people to delay treatment that works.
1nounquackSomebody who falsely claims medical skill.
“The quack sold sick people bottles of coloured water, claiming it would cure them.”
quack is a false healer.
Short for quacksalver, from Dutch kwakzalver, one who boasts of his salves. The duck's quack is a separate imitative word.
Proto-Germanic
*kwakaną
Proto-West Germanic
*kwakōn
Old Dutch
*kwaken — to croak, quack
Middle Dutch
quacken — to croak, quack
Middle English
*quacken
English, today
quack
Built from
From Middle English quacken, queken (“to croak like a frog; make a noise like a duck, goose, or quail”), from quack, qwacke, quek, queke (“quack”), also kek, keke, whec-, partly of imitative origin and partly from Middle Dutch quacken (“to croak, quack”), from Old Dutch kwaken (“to croak, quack”), from Proto-West Germanic kwakōn, from Proto-Germanic kwakaną, kwakōną (“to croak”), of imitative origin. Cognate with stq kwoakje, kwaakje (“to quack”), Middle Low German quaken (“to quack, croak”), German quaken (“to quack, croak”), Danish kvække (“to croak”), Swedish kväka (“to croak, quackle”), Norwegian kvekke (“to croak”), Icelandic kvaka (“to twitter, chirp, quack”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA