Meaning and Origin
What does the name Doctor mean? Keep reading to find the user submitted meanings, dictionary definitions, and more.
Origin and Meaning of Doctor
User Submitted Origins
English
90%
Vietnamese
10%
User Submitted Meanings
- According to a user from Indonesia, the name Doctor means "Healer, Warrior, Wise Man".
International Interest
Also see international interest
Webster's Unabridged Dictionary
noun doc"tor
Senses
- A teacher; one skilled in a profession, or branch of knowledge; a learned man.(Obs)"One of the doctors of Italy, Nicholas Macciavel." [ Bacon.]
- An academical title, originally meaning a man so well versed in his department as to be qualified to teach it. Hence: One who has taken the highest degree conferred by a university or college, or has received a diploma of the highest degree; as, a doctor of divinity, of law, of medicine, of music, or of philosophy. Such diplomas may confer an honorary title only.
- One duly licensed to practice medicine; a member of the medical profession; a physician."By medicine life may be prolonged, yet death Will seize the doctor too." [ Shak.]
- Any mechanical contrivance intended to remedy a difficulty or serve some purpose in an exigency; as, the doctor of a calico-printing machine, which is a knife to remove superfluous coloring matter; the doctor, or auxiliary engine, called also donkey engine.
- [Zoöl] The friar skate.(Prov. Eng)
Etymology: OF. doctur, L. doctor, teacher, fr. docere to teach. See Docile
verb Doc"tor
Senses
- To treat as a physician does; to apply remedies to; to repair; as, to doctor a sick man or a broken cart.(Colloq)
- To confer a doctorate upon; to make a doctor.
- To tamper with and arrange for one's own purposes; to falsify; to adulterate; as, to doctor election returns; to doctor whisky. (Slang)
verb Doc"tor
To practice physic.
Other Dictionary Sources
- Children take the roles of physician or patient or nurse and pretend they are at the physician's office ("the children explored each other's bodies by playing the game of doctor")
- A licensed medical practitioner ("I felt so bad I went to see my doctor")
- A person who holds Ph.D. degree (or the equivalent) from an academic institution ("she is a doctor of philosophy in physics")
- (Roman Catholic Church) a title conferred on 33 saints who distinguished themselves through the orthodoxy of their theological teaching ("the Doctors of the Church greatly influenced Christian thought down to the late Middle Ages")
- Give medical treatment to
- Restore by replacing a part or putting together what is torn or broken
- Alter and make impure, as with the intention to deceive
Wiktionary
- The title of an academic or medical doctor (a person who holds a doctorate); used before or instead of the doctor's name.
- The students asked to see Jones.
- Smith carried out the medical procedure.
- Well, , what do you think? Will he live?