The history of medicine

Der Quacksalber came into German from Dutch, and English took the same word from the same place. Dutch kwakzalver joins kwakken, to chatter or brag, to zalver, one who deals in salves: a man who talks up his ointments. German kept the whole compound, with die Salbe still audible inside it. English borrowed it as « quacksalver » and then cut it down to « quack », so that the salve dropped out and only the chatter was left. The German word still names both halves of the trade the historians describe: a seller at the fair whose remedy was his patter. Around him stand the words for those who treated without a degree but within a craft — der Bader, der Wundarzt, der Feldscher — and der Kurpfuscher, the insult the licensed profession later threw at anyone outside it.