The word for today is…
quack (noun) – 1. The characteristic sound uttered by a duck.
- An untrained person who pretends to be a physician and dispenses medical advice and treatment.
- A charlatan; a mountebank.
Source : The Free Dictionary
Etymology : “To make a duck sound,” 1610s, earlier quake (1520s), variant of quelke (early 14c.), of echoic origin (compare Middle Dutch quacken, Old Church Slavonic kvakati, Latin coaxare “to croak,” Greek koax “the croaking of frogs,” Hittite akuwakuwash “frog”). Middle English on the quakke (14c.) meant “hoarse, croaking.”
“Medical charlatan,” 1630s, short for quacksalver (1570s), from obsolete Dutch quacksalver (modern kwakzalver), literally “hawker of salve,” from Middle Dutch quacken “to brag, boast,” literally “to croak” (see quack + salf “salve,” salven “to rub with ointment”. As an adjective from 1650s. The oldest attested form of the word in this sense in English is as a verb, “to play the quack” (1620s). The Dutch word also is the source of German Quacksalber, Danish kvaksalver, Swedish kvacksalvare.
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