I am looking for a word to describe people that proclaim that they possess healing powers or know remedies to cure incurable conditions or even to poses spiritual powers. A general term would be a charlatan but I want something specific. Something like the word alchemist compared to a chemist. Few words, I can think of are fake shaman, fake healers, plastic shaman, voodoo priest.
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6Quack, fraud, charlatan, snake-oil salesman. – Dan Bron Dec 20 '16 at 0:13
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Bogus Doctor, Bogus healer – Chris Rogers Dec 20 '16 at 0:19
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1The term mountebank primarily signifies a hawker of quack medicines. It is a bit old-fashioned sounding, though. – Brian Donovan Dec 20 '16 at 1:49
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How about Scientologist, as they as a group have had a history of claiming to be able to cure cancer, among other things :P – NZKshatriya Dec 20 '16 at 3:50
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If you are talking medicine (including pseudo-scientific medicine) then you want either quack or snake-oil salesman.
Quack (MW, noun definitions 1 & 2)
charlatan
a pretender to medical skill
Snake-oil (MW)
any of various substances or mixtures sold (as by a traveling medicine show) as medicine usually without regard to their medical worth or properties
Snake-oil salesman (Cambridge)
someone who deceives people in order to get money from them
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7As a Brit, I wouldn't necessarily associate "Snake-oil salesman" with medicine/healing. That seems to be borne out by the different definitions in MW & Cambridge dictionaries. "Quack" would be my preferred choice. – TrevorD Dec 20 '16 at 0:31
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I agree with TrevorD: it should be Quack, and not Snake-oil salesman. A snake-oil salesman is primarily a salesman, not a doctor. Doctors (and quacks) do a lot more than just prescribe medicine. – AndyT Dec 20 '16 at 12:06
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"Quack" is the most common term I know of. Occasionally, it can be used as a derogatory term for any medical doctor
If you want something a bit more verbose/proper, use the original term "Quacksalver"
From Wiktionary:
c 1570, from Dutch kwakzalver (“hawker of salve”), from Middle Dutch quacken (“to brag, boast; to croak”)
i.e. Someone who boasts about the potency of their remedies, but is in fact a fraud.
