medicaster means A quack doctor; someone who pretends to have medical knowledge. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 88 out of 100.
medicaster is pronounced /ˈmɛdɪkastə/.
Why “medicaster” is a great word
MEDICASTER — [Noun] A quack doctor; someone who fraudulently pretends to have medical knowledge or skill. From Late Latin medicaster, from Latin medicus ('doctor, physician') + -aster (suffix forming nouns of incomplete resemblance, usually pejorative). First attested in English c. 1600. Unlike 'physician,' which denotes legitimate qualification, or 'empiric,' which could describe an unsystematic but not necessarily deceitful practitioner, a medicaster is defined by the conscious performance of fraud. It is the sulfurous smell of a traveling tonic in a dusty square, the theatrical flourish of a useless amulet, and the confident patter over a bottle of colored water—the ancient, enduring shadow cast by the fear of pain and the desperate hope for a cure.
Etymology
From French médicastre or Italian medicastro, from Late Latin medicaster, from Latin medicus (“a doctor, a physician; a surgeon”) + -aster (suffix forming nouns expressing incomplete resemblance, which are thus usually pejorative).
noun
- A quack doctor; someone who pretends to have medical knowledge.“But these innovating Medicaſters have introduced a Practice not only very precarious, but in many Reſpects extremely dangerous, and quite devoid of any one of the Qualities which conſtitute a good Remedy, viz. to cure the Patient, as the Axiom has it, cito, tuto, & jucunde, i.e. ſpeedily, ſafely, and pleaſantly.”