40: quacks Jan 17, 2015

As he bubonic plague, for which there was no cure, decimated Europe, swarms of bogus healers preyed on the desperate populace. Some offered ointments or 'salves' from the Latin 'salve'. Their noisy sales talk, like those of carnival bakers, reminded the Dutch of ducks quacking 'kwakken'. So in Holland they became known as 'quacksalvers' and later 'quacks'.