| 词源 |
quack; medicine man. Quack is an abbreviation of the 16th- century word quacksalver, which meant an ignorant charlatan who peddled nostrums and cure-all medicines in the street, the word deriving from the quack sound a duck makes and salve, medicine or ointment. In America quacks were called medicine men, after the Indian medicine men, as early as 1830. It might be said that the most famous of American fortunes began with a medicine man, or a quack, as John D. Rockefel- ler’s father, William, would be called today. “Dr.” Rockefeller was one of the traveling medicine men who put on minstrel shows featuring “Negroes in black face” to sell their wares. He called himself “Dr. William A. Rockefeller, the Celebrated Cancer Specialist,” claiming he could cure all cases of cancer (“unless too far gone”) with patent medicines. He once bragged, “I cheat my sons every chance I get” in order to “make ’em sharp.” |