Buzz
This term for individuals offering fake cures or pretending to have medical expertise has been in use since the early 1600s. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded appearance is in Francis Quarles' 1638 work, Hieroglyphikes of the Life of Man, where he writes: 'Quack, leave thy trade; thy dealings are not right, thou tak’st our weighty gold, to give us light.'
The word Quack, referring to a medical imposter, is a shortened form of the old Dutch quacksalver (modern Dutch: kwakzalver), originally meaning someone who uses home remedies to heal, eventually coming to denote a person promoting false cures or lacking genuine medical knowledge.
The origins of the term become unclear when traced further back. The word quacksalver has been linked to kwakken (to toss or throw) + zalver (a healer using ointments), quacsalven (a term for home remedies from the 1300s), and quaken (to croak or quack) + salf (salve). Figuratively, the kwakken and quaken roots suggest someone boasting and promoting their medical products, whether legitimate or not, aligning with the modern meaning of the word.
The resemblance between Quacksalver and quicksilver, another term for mercury—a heavy metal occasionally found in fake medicines—might hint at a connection. However, there is no documented evidence to suggest that the element played a role in the origin of the name.
