Pronounced: ka-KAH-gruh-fee, noun
Notes: I should have known the meaning of this word
Yesterday’s word
The word quacksalver means “a quack; one pretending to have skills or knowledge – especially in medicine”
First usage
Our word came into English in the late 1500s
Background / Comments
I was familiar with the word “quack”; what I didn’t know was that it is a shortening of our word. Our word comes from an obsolete Dutch word that is now kwakzalver, which is made up of quack (boast) and salve (ointment).
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 