William Shakespeare used the word doctor both of a learned, skilful man and of a physician. Claudio was speaking of the former when he told Don Pedro in Much Ado: `He is then a giant to an ape; but then is an ape a doctor to such a man.'
The whole story of the term doctor of medicine is interesting. Doctor is the Latin for teacher and the form in which medieval universities certified the competency of their students was in a licence to teach. In some places the holders of licences were called doctors, in others, masters; the two titles were considered equivalent.
Ncvw it happened that in Salerno, Europe's oldest university, it is said, the only subject taught was medicine, and its graduates were called doctors well before 1000. In the 12th and 13th centuries the Norman rulers of Sicily decreed that the practice of medicine be confined to people holding the teacher's licence of Salerno, and so the licensed teacher and the licensed practitioner became one and the same, and both were called doctor.
Hence came the street use of the word to denote a physician of any grade, whether he or she processes the higher degree of Doctor or not. The barber surgeons, for centuries considered the lowest form of medical life, were allowed the old title of Master, abbreviated to Mr.
I once saw the minutes of a meeting held some time in the early 18th century In Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital (often referred to by the poor of Dublin as St Patrick Dun's) at which the governors gave the masters tall-ho for using the front doors instead of the tradesmen's entrance.
The term doctor of skill is still used of a physician in rural East Anglia, Sussex and Hampshire, to distinguish him from PhDs, DScs and the rest. In parts of Lincolnshire doctor means pharmacist. In Devon and in Cornwall the seventh son of a family without a girl is called `the doctor': he is believed to be born with a special aptness for healing. But isn't it strange that to doctor means to mutilate in many places, both here and in England. I heard a man with a pronounced Cork accent shout `doctor the bastard!' at the Ireland-Scotland rugby match.
Surgeons are proud to be called Mister, but the dental surgeons now style themselves Doctor to be as good as the medics. Have the barbers nobody to stand up for them?