different between quack vs crocus

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kwæk/
• Rhymes: -æk

Etymology 1

From Middle English *quacken, queken (“to croak like a frog; make a noise like a duck, goose, or quail”), from quack, qwacke, quek, queke (“quack”, interjection and noun), also kek, keke, whec-, partly of imitative origin and partly from Middle Dutch quacken (“to croak, quack”), from Old Dutch *kwaken (“to croak, quack”), from Proto-Germanic *kwakan?, *kwak?n? (“to croak”), of imitative origin. Cognate with Saterland Frisian kwoakje, kwaakje (“to quack”), Middle Low German quaken (“to quack, croak”), German quaken (“to quack, croak”), Danish kvække (“to croak”), Swedish kväka (“to croak, quackle”), Norwegian kvekke (“to croak”), Icelandic kvaka (“to twitter, chirp, quack”).

Alternative forms

• quaake (obsolete)

Noun

quack (plural quacks)

1. The sound made by a duck.

Translations

Verb

quack (third-person singular simple present quacks, present participle quacking, simple past and past participle quacked)

1. To make a noise like a duck.

Derived terms

Translations

References

Etymology 2

Clipping of quacksalver, from Middle Dutch kwaksalver (“hawker of salve”) (modern Dutch kwakzalver), from quacken (“to brag, boast; to croak”). Ultimately related to etymology one, above.

Noun

quack (plural quacks)

2. A fraudulent healer or incompetent professional; especially, a doctor of medicine who makes false diagnoses or inappropriate treatment; an impostor who claims to have qualifications to practice medicine. [from c. 1630]
   • 1636, John Ford, The Fancies Chaste and Noble

     The very quack of fashions, the very he that / Wears a stiletto on his chin.

   • 1662, Rump: or an Exact Collection of the Choycest Poems and Songs Relating to Late Times, Vol. II, by ‘the most Eminent Wits’

     Tis hard to say, how much these Arse-wormes do urge us, We now need no Quack but these Jacks for to purge us, [...]

   • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. 8, The Electon

     ‘if we are ourselves valets, there shall ‘exist no hero for us; we shall not know the hero when we see him;’ - we shall take the quack for a hero; and cry, audibly through all ballot-boxes and machinery whatsoever, Thou art he; be thou King over us!

   • 1981, S.O.B. (film):

     Polly (to security guard, referring to Dr. Feingarten): Are you going to let that shyster in there?

     Dr. Feingarten: I could sue you, Polly. A shyster is a disreputable lawyer. I'm a quack.

3. A charlatan.
4. (slang) A doctor.

Synonyms

• medicaster (dated, now chiefly literary)
• quacksalver
• See also Thesaurus:deceiver

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

quack (third-person singular simple present quacks, present participle quacking, simple past and past participle quacked)

1. To practice or commit quackery (fraudulent medicine).
   • 1722, Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year, London: E. Nutt et al., p. 36,^[1]

     […] it is incredible, and scarce to be imagin’d, how the Posts of Houses, and Corners of Streets were plaster’d over with Doctors Bills, and Papers of ignorant Fellows; quacking and tampering in Physick, and inviting the People to come to them for Remedies;

2. (obsolete) To make vain and loud pretensions.

   Synonym: boast

   • 1684, Samuel Butler, Hudibras, London, Part 3, Canto 1, p. 18,^[2]

     Seek out for Plants with Signatures

     To Quack of Universal Cures

Translations

Adjective

quack (comparative more quack or quacker, superlative most quack or quackest) (quacker and quackest are rare, and probably used humorously)

1. Falsely presented as having medicinal powers.

Translations

Further reading

• quack (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• quackery on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?k???.k?s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?k?o?.k?s/
• Rhymes: -??k?s

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin crocus, from Ancient Greek ?????? (krókos, “crocus”).

Noun

crocus (plural crocuses or croci or crocus)

1. A perennial flowering plant (of the genus Crocus in the Iridaceae family). Saffron is obtained from the stamens of Crocus sativus.
2. Any of various similar flowering plants, such as the autumn crocus and prairie crocus.
3. (chemistry, obsolete) A deep yellow powder, the oxide of some metal (especially iron), calcined to a red or deep yellow colour.
4. (obsolete, slang) A fraudulent doctor; a quack.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “From croker?”)

Noun

crocus (uncountable)

1. (Jamaican, Trinidad and Tobago) Burlap.

   a crocus bag

Anagrams

• occurs, succor

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin crocus, from Ancient Greek ?????? (krókos, “crocus”).

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA^(key): /?k??.kus/

Noun

crocus m (plural crocus)

1. crocus

Further reading

• “crocus” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.
• “crocus” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin crocus, from Ancient Greek ?????? (krókos, “crocus”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??.kys/

Noun

crocus m (plural crocus)

1. crocus (plant)

Further reading

• “crocus” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Latin

Alternative forms

• crocum

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ?????? (krókos, “crocus”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?kro.kus/, [?k??k?s?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?kro.kus/, [?k???kus]

Noun

crocus m (genitive croc?); second declension

1. crocus, saffron

Usage notes

Most often, the masculine crocus was used to refer to the plant, while the neuter crocum was used for saffron gathered from the plant. However, this distinction is not universally observed, and the word crocus may refer either to the crocus plant or to saffron taken from the plant.

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Descendants

• Old Occitan: gròc, gruèc
  • Catalan: groc
    • ?? English: grog
    • ? Sardinian: grogu
  • Occitan: cròc
• Galician: croque
• Italian: croco
• ? Catalan: crocus
• ? Czech: krokus
• ? Dutch: krokus
• ? English: crocus
• ? Finnish: krookus
• ? French: crocus
• ? German: Krokus
• ? Icelandic: krókus
• ? Norwegian: krokus
• ? Polish: krokus
• ? Portuguese: croco
• ? Russian: ??????? (krókus)
• ? Slovene: krokus
• ? Spanish: croco
• ? Swedish: krokus
• ? Translingual: Crocus

References

• crocus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• crocus in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• crocus in William Smith, editor (1848) A Dictionary of Greek Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray