bone-setter
(ˈbəʊnˌsɛtə(r))
One who sets dislocated or broken bones; a surgeon; now applied spec. to one who makes a distinct calling of treating fractures, without being a certified surgeon.
| c 1470 Play Sacram. 539 He ys allso a boone setter. c 1510 Barclay Mirr. Good Mann. (1570) D vj, A bone setter he hyreth. 1622 Peacham Compl. Gentl. xi. (1634) 99 Accounted the best Bone-setter in the Country. 1706 Hearn Rem. & Coll. (1885) I. 226 An Eminent Bone-setter and a good Surgeon. 1884 Pall Mall G. 24 Sept. 5/1 A bone-setter is a sort of amateur surgeon, who has learnt the art of curing dislocations empirically, and who practises that particular branch of surgery in an informal, irregular manner..Of late..the art of the bone-setter has risen into some repute with the regular profession. |
So bone-setting vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Algebra, bone-setting. 1676 Wiseman Surg. (J.) A fractured leg set in the country by one pretending to bonesetting. 1808 Bentham Sc. Reform 50 The bone setting or bone breaking hundred-mile road. |