Quacksalve

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. A person who falsely claims medical expertise and sells useless remedies or treatments to the gullible ; to engage in fraudulent medical practice or sell bogus cures
2. Someone who poses as a doctor or healer while peddling ineffective or harmful remedies ; to practice medicine dishonestly or peddle fake medical treatments
3. A charlatan who deceives people with false medical claims and worthless treatments ; to defraud people by offering fake or ineffective medical services

Etymology: The Dutch "kwakzalver" combines "kwakken", meaning to boast or chatter, with "zalf", meaning salve or ointment. A kwakzalver was a seller who loudly promised miracle cures for his ointments in public, so the first element described the sales patter rather than the bird's cry. The English word, in the form "quacksalve" or "quacksalver", is a borrowing from Dutch. The Dutch "kwakken" belongs to a family of imitative verbs, related to German "quacken" and English "quack", that echo the noise of a duck. The sense of noisy, empty talk came first, and the ointment peddler was a boaster before he was a fraud. Over time the word narrowed from any boastful seller to a pretender who claims medical skill he does not have.

Synonyms: quack, charlatan, fraud