quacksalver
(ˈkwæksælvə(r))
Also 6–7 quack(e)-, 7 quaksaluer.
[a. early mod.Du. (16th c.) quacksalver (Kilian; mod.Du. kwakzalver), whence also G. quacksalber, Sw. qvacksalfvare: the second element is f. salf, zalf salve, ointment, and the first is commonly regarded as the stem of quacken (mod.Du. kwakken) to quack.
On this view a quacksalver is one who ‘quacks’ or boasts about the virtues of his salves; it has however been suggested that quack- or kwak- may mean ‘to work in a feeble bungling fashion’ (Franck).]
1. An ignorant person who pretends to a knowledge of medicine or of wonderful remedies: = quack n.1 1.
Very common in 17th c.; in later times largely superseded by the abbreviation quack n.1
| 1579 Gosson Sch. Abuse (Arb.) 53 A quacke-saluers Budget of filthy receites. 1605 B. Jonson Volpone ii. ii, They are quack-saluers, Fellowes, that liue by senting oyles, and drugs. 1658 Rowland tr. Moufet's Theatr. Ins. 1074 One accidental rash cure of a disease..makes a Quacksalver a great Physician. 1719 D'Urfey Pills (1872) IV. 87 Come you Quack-salvers that do kill Sometimes a Patient by your skill. 1856 Vaughan Mystics (1860) II. viii. ix. 98 What a gulf between the high personage our romance imagines and..that shuffling quacksalver which our matter-of-fact research discovers. |
| attrib. a 1670 Hacket Cent. Serm. (1675) 544 St. Peter had no such Quacksalver tricks in Divinity. |
2. transf. = quack 2.
| 1611 W. Baker Panegyr. Verses in Coryat's Crudities, The Anatomie dissection or cutting up of that great Quack⁓salver of words Mr. Thomas Coryate our British Mercurie. 1889 Swinburne Stud. B. Jonson 43 Brother Zeal-of-the-land is no vulgar impostor, no mere religious quacksalver. |
Hence
quacksalverism,
† -salvery, quackery.
| 1617 Minsheu Ductor, Quacksaluerie. 1864 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. IV. 392 Sublime quacksalverism. |