Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Quack |
QuackAdjective1. Medically unqualified; "a quack doctor". Noun1. An untrained person who pretends to be a physician and who dispenses medical advice. 2. The harsh sound of a duck. Verb1. Utter quacking noises; "The ducks quacked". 2. Act as a medical quack or a charlatan. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "quack" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1615. (references) |
Note: Quack \Quack\, intransitive verb [imperfect & past participle. Qvacked; Quacking.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
19th Century Satire | The Duck family's favorite physician. Source: Foolish Dictionary, 1904. |
Literature | Quack or ~~~Quack Doctor; Quack Doctor; once called quack-salver. A puffer of salves. (Swedish, qvak-salfearë; Norwegian, qvak-salver; German, quacksalber.) "Saltimbancoes, quacksalvers, and charlatans deceive the vulgar."- Sir Thomas Browne. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Medicine | A fraudulent empiric; one who claims medical skill that he does not possess. Source: European Union. (references) |
Slang in 1811 | QUACK. An ungraduated ignorant pretender to skill in physic, a vender of nostrums. Source: 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Quackery is the practice of unproven, ineffective medicine, usually in order to make money or to maintain a position of power.Quackery has existed all throughout human history, and probably pre-dates the emergence of effective medicine. The nineteenth century era of the rise of mass marketing of patent medicines is usually considered to have been a "golden age" of quackery.
Quackery is still abundant today; some forms of herbal therapy, miracle cures, and diet and fitness regimes, and all forms of homeopathy, are considered a form of quackery by many medical experts.
These treatments persist for a variety of reasons:
- The placebo effect. Medicines or treatments, known to have no effect on a disease, can have major effects on a person's perception of their illness. People report reduced pain, and increased well being, all because they don't know their treatment does nothing. The placebo effect is extreme in the treatment of depression. Some studies show up to 80% of people will report an improvement in their condition after taking a sugar pill.
- False hope. Most conventional practitioners consider it unethical to lie to a patient about the chance of success of their treatment. Quacks do not have these ethical constraints.
- Side effects from real treatment. Anti-cancer drugs and radical surgery can have very distressing side effects.
- Distrust of conventional medicine. Conventional medicine does not have a clean history either. Much of medicine's past was in fact quackery. Doctors are often paid a very large salary, much more than most of the people they treat. They often receive money for a consultation, without giving any treatment. Mistakes made by doctors are also reported extensively by the media. The regulatory committees of medical doctors, are doctors themselves. Quackery doesn't have to deal with their wrongs of the past, they don't call themselves quacks, they can change their name to whatever is trendy at the time. They also promote the distrust of conventional medicine, often by misinformation.
- Cost. Pharmaceutical companies and doctors charge a lot of money for their services. Quacks can easily undercut them, by providing what they call, a better treatment for much less money.
Quackery today
The most common products that are being sold, and are considered ineffective or unproven by experts are herbal medicines. These are usually harmless, and can not legally claim to cure medical conditions. In most countries there is no regulation of herbal medicines. Some herbal medicines are dangerous, some work, some are a harmless waste of money (besides a possible placebo effect).
Numerous diet programs use people's concern over their image, as a way to make money. They sell books and videos, often with ridiculous ideas about nutrition.
A more disturbing, and a practice more often acknowledged to be quackery, are the miracle cancer cures and treatments.
Many people in western countries, after losing hope with conventional medicine, go to places such as Tijuana, Mexico, where promises of effective treatment for diseases such as cancer are made. (Usually over the internet.)
At these institutions, untrained, or immoral, technicians apply all sort of useless treatments. Examples include pulsing an electrical current through the body to kill 'the bad cells', this has no effect on any cellss. These devices usually consist of a car battery, hooked up to two metal plates, in a medical-looking box. They receive a lot of money, and cite a lot of people cured. These people usually blame a conspiracy or a cover-up for the fact the treatment is not used elsewhere.
Many people die because of these places, as their tumour keeps growing, while they receive no real treatment.
History
External links
- http://www.quackwatch.org/ - Up to date information about health fraud.
- http://skepdic.com/tialtmed.html - Information about alternative therapies.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Quackery."
Synonym: QuackSynonym: quack(a) (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Bungler | Land lubber; fresh water sailor, fair weather sailor; horse marine; fish out of water, ass in lion's skin,land lubber; fresh water sailor, fair weather sailor; horse marine; fish out of water, ass in lion's skin, jackdaw in peacock's feathers; quack; (deceiver); lord of misrule. |
Deceiver | Quack, charlatan, mountebank, saltimbanco, saltimbanque, empiric, quacksalver, medicaster, Rosicrucian, gypsy; man of straw. |
Remedy | Doctor, physician, surgeon; general practitioner, specialist; medical attendant, apothecary, druggist; leech; osteopath, osteopathist; optometrist, ophthalmologist; internist, oncologist, gastroenterologist; epidemiologist, public health specialist; dermatologist; podiatrist; witch doctor, shaman, faith healer, quack, exorcist; Aesculapius, Hippocrates, Galen; accoucheur, accoucheuse, midwife, oculist, aurist; operator; nurse, registered nurse, practical nurse, monthly nurse, sister; nurse's aide, candystriper; dresser; bonesetter; pharmaceutist, pharmacist, druggist, chemist, pharmacopolist. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Quack |
| English words defined with "quack": Amethodist ♦ Medicaster, Merry-andrew ♦ Quacking, Quackish, Quacksalver, Qvacked ♦ Saltimbanco ♦ Theologaster ♦ Waahoo, wreck. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "quack": Hob Nob ♦ Katerfelto ♦ NOSTRUM ♦ Quack Doctor, Quack Medicine, Quacks. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "quack": Quacksalver. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Quack" is also a word in the following language with the English translation in parentheses. Manx (quack ). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Quack attack is back, Jack (D2: The Mighty Ducks; writing credit: Steven Brill) We killed Quack Quack (Jackass; writing credit: Donald Spoto; Eric Overmyer) Hey, quack! Who are you (The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy; writing credit: Douglas Adams; John Lloyd) No one laughs at a master of Quack Fu (Howard the Duck; writing credit: Steve Gerber; Willard Huyck) | |
Clever | A dancer goes quick on her beautiful legs; a duck goes quack on her beautiful eggs. (references; author: unknown) | |
Tongue Twisters | The quack quit asking quick questions. (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Quack Shot (1954) Cracked Quack (1952) One Quack Mind (1951) Quack Service (1943) The Quack Doctor (1920) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Theater & Movies | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Quack! Der Schatten Und Der Körper. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |  | No home remedy or quack doctor ever cured syphilis or gonorrhea. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |
 | Marriage A La Mode. : Scene With The Quack. / Engraved by C. Mottram. From the Original Picture by Hogarth. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |  | Which is Right or Regular and Quack opinions on the Flushing Fever. / [Charles Williams]. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |
 | The Sailor and the Quack Doctor!! / Woodward del. Cruikshank sc. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |  | Quack busters enhancing freedom of choice through reliable information. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |
 | [Meissen porcelain group of the travelling quack doctor, his table of wares, monkey and 'Zany'.]. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |  | A quack doctor at the fair. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | No home remedy or quack doctor ever cured syphilis or gonorrhea See your doctor or local health officer / / Karsakov. Credit: Library of Congress. | ||
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Play | Caption | Play | Caption |
 | Duck quack. | | Duck quack. |
| Duck quack. | ||
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Sylvie and Bruno Concluded | Carroll, Lewis | It was too quick for a quack, and yet too harsh to be anything else |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Quack" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 43.59% of the time. "Quack" is used about 156 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 43.59% | 68 | 40,606 |
| Interjection | 33.33% | 52 | 47,145 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 18.59% | 29 | 64,444 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 4.49% | 7 | 133,076 |
| Total | 100.00% | 156 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "quack": quack doctor ♦ quack grass ♦ quack powder. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "quack": quack-quack, quack-quack!. | |
Ending with "quack": duck-quack, mid-quack, quack-quack. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
quack | 86 | attack brett longley quack | 4 |
grass quack | 70 | dr quack | 3 |
quack watch | 23 | audrey quack | 3 |
duck echo quack | 15 | 3 quack | 3 |
medical quack | 11 | chiropractor quack | 3 |
doctor quack | 10 | grass lawn quack | 2 |
quack pack | 10 | quack scams | 2 |
quack the duck | 8 | chiropractic quack | 2 |
earth quack | 7 | quack rom shot | 2 |
donald duck quack attack | 7 | attack cheat donald duck quack | 2 |
medicine quack | 6 | game quack shot | 2 |
quack attack | 6 | grass kill quack | 2 |
quack quack | 5 | quack watch.org | 2 |
control grass quack | 4 | attack brandon duckworth quack | 2 |
jerusha quack said | 2 | ||
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "quack"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | xherah (bone setter, quacksalver), sharlatan (charlatan, mountebank, phoney, sham), mashtrues (ambidextrous, artful, bilker, bluffer, bouncer, catchy, cheat, Crimp, deceitful, deceiver, deceptive, delusive, delusory, diddler, dishonest, dodger, double, double dealing, double-dealer, finagler, fraud, fraudulent, guileful, gyp, humbug, hustler, impostor, Jack-in-the-box, mendacious, misleading, mountebank, pettifogger, pettifogging, phoney, racketeer, rascal, rascally, rogue, sandman, shuffler, skin, snide, swindler, trickster, twister, two-tongued), gagaritje e roseve, gagarit (honk). (various references) | |
Arabic | مشعوذ (charlatan, conjuror, juggler, swindler, voodoo), قاق صوت البط, قرقر (gurgle, squawk), طبيب دجال (impostor), صياح البط, الدجال (charlatan, impostor, magus, mountebank, operator, sham, witchdoctor), البطبطة, ثرثر (babble, blab, blabber, bluster, chatter, clack, clatter, crack, gabble, gas, gibber, give oneself airs, gossip, jabber, jangle, jaw, natter, palaver, patter, prate, prattle, rap, rumble, shoot one's mouth off, smatter, talk, tattle, twaddle, twitter, yap), شعوذ (conjure, juggle, mountebank), بطبط صوت البط, بطبط. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | рекламирам (advertise, advertize, boom, boost, headline, promote, publicize, puff, push, sell), шарлатанствувам (mountebank), шарлатански (quackish), шарлатанин (charlatan, humbug, mountebank, operator, phoney, phony, quacksalver, shyster), крякане на патица, гледам да пробутам (push), врач (fortune teller, leech, quacksalver), знахар (charlatan, medicaster, quacksalver, witch doctor), лъжлив (bogus, deceitful, deceptive, delusive, delusory, double, double-tongued, elusory, false, lying, mendacious, misleading, mock, perjurious, phantasmagoric, pretended, shifty, spoof, tinsel, truthless, untrue, untruthful, vain), бръщолевене (babble), брътвеж (babble, chat, footle, palaver, prate, prattle, rigmarole, wash), баяч (quacksalver). (various references) | |
Chinese | 庸医, 嘎嘎 . (various references) | |
Czech | mastièkář, kvákat (croak), kvákání, káchat, dryáènický, šarlatánský, šarlatán (charlatan, fake, humbug, quacksalver, sciolist). (various references) | |
Danish | mirakeldoktor, kvaksalver, charlatan. (various references) | |
Dutch | kwakzalver (charlatan, imposter), charlatan (charlatan, imposter), bedrieger (charlatan, cheat, deceiver, fraud, imposter). (various references) | |
Esperanto | ĉarlatano (charlatan, imposter). (various references) | |
Faeroese | svikari (charlatan, imposter), svíkjari (charlatan, imposter). (various references) | |
Farsi | چاخان (Bluff, Whiff), قلابی (Adulterate, Bogus, False, Pasteboard, Sham), قات قات کردن (Cackle), قات قات , ساختگی (Apocryphal, Bogus, False, Imitation, Made, Phony, Sham, Whopper), صدای اردک کردن , صدای اردک , ادم شارلاتان , دوای قلابی دادن , دروغی (Sham). (various references) | |
Finnish | puoskari (charlatan, imposter). (various references) | |
French | charlatan (quack doctor). (various references) | |
German | Quacksalber (charlatan, imposter), Wunderdoktor, Scharlatan (charlatan, imposter, phoney, phony), quaken (bellow, bleat, croak, neigh, screech, squawk), Kurpfuscher. (various references) | |
Greek | κράζω (caw, croak, halloo, hollo, screech, squawk). (various references) | |
Hebrew | לקרקר (cackle, cluck, gaggle, squawk), רופא אליל (medicine man, mountebank, witchdoctor). (various references) | |
Hungarian | sarlatán (charlatan, empiricist, imposter, medicaster, mountebank, quack doctor, sham, tarlatan), kuruzsló (charlatan, healer, medicine man, pow-wow, quack doctor, quacksalver, water doctor), hápogás. (various references) | |
Indonesian | tukang obat, membebek (imitate, parrot), dukun (healear, wizard). (various references) | |
Italian | ciarlatano (charlatan, mountebank, phoney, sham). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 藪医者 , 野師 (charlatan, faker, showman), 香具師 (charlatan, faker, master perfume maker, showman), 筍医者 (inexperienced doctor), 弥四 (charlatan, faker, showman). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | たけの"いしゃ (inexperienced doctor), やぶいしゃ, やし (charlatan, faker, non-official or privately composed history, palm tree, showman). (various references) | |
Korean | 돌"이 의사. (various references) | |
Manx | quackal, quack, far fer lhee. (various references) | |
Norwegian | snadring, snadre (cackle), kvaksalver. (various references) | |
Occitan | triacaire (charlatan). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ackquay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | charlatão (charlatan, empiric, gabbler, imposter, medicaster, mountebank, pettifogger, quacksalver, sciolist), impostor (charlatan, cheat, counterfeit, hocus, humbug, imposter, impostor, juggler, phoney, phony, quacksalver, sham, shammer, shyster, swindler, trickster), curandeiro (charlatan, curium, imposter, medicaster, quacksalver, witchdoctor). (various references) | |
Romanian | vraci, practica medicina empiricã, pehlivan (charlatan, wag), mac! mac, mãcãit, mãcãi, impostor (humbug, impostor), fi un impostor, empiric (by rule of thumb, empiric, empirical, empirically), şarlatanesc (quackish), şarlatan (charlatan, coon, desperado, history, impostor, juggler, mountebank). (various references) | |
Russian | кряква (mallard, mallard duck, wild duck), крякать знахарь, крякать (quackle), кряканье, знахарь (charlatan, doctor, medicaster, medicine man, medicineman, mountebank, powwow, quacksalver, voodoo, voodoo doctor, voodoo priest, witch doctor, witch-doctor). (various references) | |
Scottish | r c (a drake, a rake, rake, the call of a duck). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | gakati (cackle, caw, honk), gakanje (cackling, caw, gaggle, honk), šarlatan (charlatan, mountebank). (various references) | |
Spanish | matasanos (sawbones), graznido (caw, croak, honk, squawk), graznar (caw, croak, crow, gaggle, honk, squawk). (various references) | |
Swedish | snattra (chatter, gabble, gaggle, gibber, honk, jabber, jibber, natter), kvacksalvare (charlatan, empiric, mountebank, quack doctor), charlatan (charlatan, empiric). (various references) | |
Thai | เสียงเป็"ร้อง, โฆษ"าชวนเชื่อ (hype), นักต้มตุ๋น, ต้มตุ๋น, ร้องเป็นเป็", หมอเถื่อน (quacksalver), ซึ่งหลอกลวง (quackish). (various references) | |
Turkish | zevzeklik (flannel, silliness), yalancı (deceitful, fabricator, fabulist, fibber, liar, mendacious, prevaricator, pseudo-, sham, simulator, taleteller, twister, twisty, untruthful), yalan (deceit, fabrication, falsehood, falseness, fib, flam, gammon, hollow, invention, lie, made up, mendacious, plumper, prevarication, sham, shave, tale, taradiddle, tarradiddle, tell a lie, telltale, untrue, untruth, untruthful), vakvak etmek, vakvak (quack-quack), vak, uydurma (adjustment, apocryphal, arranging, cardboard box, coinage, colorable, concoction, fabled, fabrication, fabulous, fake, false, falsification, fib, fiction, fictitious, fictive, figment, fitting, flam, gold brick, improvisation, improvised, invention, made up, making up, mendacious, out of whole cloth, tosh, trumped-up, tuning, untrue, untruth, untruthful), sahte doktor (charlatan, quack doctor), sahte (apocryphal, artificial, bad, base, bastard, bogus, colorable, counterfeit, double dealing, dud, Duff, dummy, factitious, fake, false, feigned, forged, fraudulent, hollow, imitated, make believe, mannered, mock, phoney, phony, pinchbeck, pious, pretended, pseudo-, put on, queer, rose water, sham, shoddy, simulated, snide, spurious, studied, supposititious, telltale, token, unreal, untrue, untruthful), dırdır etmek (grouse, grumble, nag, rattle, squawk), dırdır (chatter, grumbling, jaw, rattle), şarlatanlık yapmak, şarlatan (charlatan, croaker, dabbler, empiric, fake, faker, humbug, mountebank, phoney, phony, sciolist, wag), ördek sesi, ördek gibi bağırmak. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | шарлатан (charlatan, pettifogger), крякати (caw, croak), крякання (caw, quacksalver), квакати (croak), качка (duck, rocking), знахарювати. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | có tính chất lang băm (quackish). (various references) | |
Welsh | crachfeddyg. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Middle Dutch | 1100-1500 | quacken. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "quack": quacked, quackeries, quackery, quacking, quackish, quackism, quackisms, quacks, quacksalver, quacksalvers. (additional references) | |
| |
"Quack" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: kack, kuack, Kujacku, qac, Qtac, quac, quace, quach, quacka, quacke, quacko, quacku, quacky, quact, quak, quakka, qualk, Quanko, quask, Quass, quax, quck, quece, quigk, quink, quirck, quisk, quoc, quoce, quock, quok, quyck, Qwak, squack. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "quack" (pronounced kwa"k) |
| 3 | -w a" k | wack, whack. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-k-q-u" | |
-2 letters: auk, qua. | |
-3 letters: ka. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-k-q-u" | |
+1 letter: quacks. | |
+2 letters: quacked. | |
+3 letters: quackery, quacking, quackish, quackism. | |
+4 letters: quackisms, quicksand, quillback. | |
+5 letters: microquake, quackeries, quicksands, quillbacks. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Sounds | 9. Quotations: Fiction 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions 12. Expressions: Internet | 13. Translations: Modern 14. Translations: Ancient 15. Derivations 16. Rhymes | 17. Anagrams 18. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
