Why are medical professionals called Doctors?

Question

Searching online for the origin of Doctor being used for medical professionals, the often repeated facts are:

Is it possible to find out why exactly this happened and where?

Did it happen first in English because of similar words (e.g. the verb to doctor)?

Definitely goes back at least to the 1300's, with Chaucer's "Doctour of Physik". Physik is medicine (c.f. "physician"), so Chaucer is literally describing him as an "MD". — Robert Columbia, Commented Dec 17, 2023 at 15:13

Gio · Accepted Answer · 2023-12-16 22:30:30Z

5

It was a usage which was gradually adopted during Middle Ages as Etymonline explains:

The sense of "medical professional, person duly licensed to practice medicine" (replacing native leech (n.2)) grew gradually out of this from c. 1400, though this use of the word was not common until late 16c. The transitional stage is exemplified in Chaucer's Doctor of phesike (Latin physica came to be used extensively in Medieval Latin for medicina).
That no man ... practyse in Fisyk ... but he be Bacheler or Doctour of Fisyk, havynge Lettres testimonyalx sufficeantz of on of those degrees of the Universite. [Rolls of Parliament, 1421]

answered Dec 16, 2023 at 22:30

Gio

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2

What are the x and z at the ends of the words in the phrase "havynge Lettres testimonyalx sufficeantz"?
– Omar and Lorraine
Commented Dec 17, 2023 at 16:56
This explains when the shift occurred, but not why it occurred, which was the most interesting part of the question. How did we get from teaching (in general, including on topics that have nothing to do with medicine) to practising medicine (which need not include teaching)?
– jsw29
Commented Dec 17, 2023 at 21:35
2

@jsw29 the linked entry suggests that the word meant "learned, skilled in a learned profession" from which it was applied to medical professionals.
– dubious
Commented Dec 18, 2023 at 16:57

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