Bonesetter

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who treats fractures by realigning broken bones so they can heal properly
2. Someone trained to put displaced or fractured bones back into their correct position for healing
3. A practitioner, often without formal medical training, who manipulates broken limbs back into place

Etymology: Bonesetter is one of those words where the history is plain: it is a transparent compound of "bone" and "setter," and the meaning follows directly from the parts. A setter, in this sense, is someone who sets, or puts back in place, something that has been displaced. Medieval and early modern English used the term for practitioners who manipulated broken or dislocated bones back into alignment, often without formal medical training, and these folk specialists were a familiar part of rural life for centuries. The "setter" half carries most of the older history. It comes from the verb "set," which in this context means to fix a bone into its proper position so it can heal, a use that goes back to Old English roots. The "bone" half is ancient Germanic vocabulary, so the whole compound is built entirely from native English materials rather than borrowed Latin or Greek terms, which is unusual for a specialist occupation name.

Synonyms: chiropractor, osteopath