Edward Tabor
Bethesda, Maryland, United States

Four English words have been used for centuries to refer to medical practitioners: “doctor,” “physician,” “leech,” and “surgeon.” Each of these has unique origins. “Doctor” comes from “docere” in Latin meaning “to teach”¹; thus, calling someone a “doctor” is etymologically calling them “teacher.” “Physician” comes from “physis” in Greek, meaning “nature”^1,2; thus a “physician” is etymologically someone who understands the natural world. “Surgeon” is from the Greek word “kheirourgia” meaning “hand work.”³

“Leech” is from Old English (spoken during the Anglo-Saxon period, 450–1100 CE), in which the word “laece”^1,4 meant both someone who heals with herbs and someone who heals with surgery.⁵ Although the identical word “leech” means a bloodsucking worm that was used to treat patients in centuries past, some experts believe its use to mean a bloodsucking worm was originally from Middle Dutch, whereas its use to mean “healer” was originally from the three Germanic languages Old Frisian, Old Saxon, and Old High German, and that the two meanings arose separately.^1,5

In Middle English (spoken during the Middle Ages, 1100–1450 CE), all four terms were in use, but they were spelled “doctour,”^6,7,8 “fisicien”^6,7 (or “phisicien”⁸), “leche,”^6,7,8 and “cirurgien”⁷ (or “surgien”⁸). All four were used by Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343–1400 CE)^8,9 (Tables I, II), particularly in The Canterbury Tales. Throughout his writings, he used “doctour” (to mean “healer”) once, “phisicien” eleven times, “leche” fourteen times, and “surgien” six times. In “The Phisiciens Tale,”⁹ one of The Canterbury Tales, he used the words “doctour of phisyk” in the “Prologue” and “phisicien” in the title of the tale to refer to the same person. (In addition, in Middle English “fisike” [also spelled “phisik” and “phisyk”] meant “art of healing,” “leche-craft” meant “knowledge of medicine,” and “lechen” meant “to heal.”^6,7,8)

William Shakespeare (1564–1616 CE), writing in an early form of Modern English (sometimes called “Elizabethan English”), used “doctor” (to mean “healer”) fifty-three times (once as a “doctor of physic”), “physician” thirty-two times, and “surgeon” fourteen times,¹⁰ excluding stage directions (Tables I, II). Shakespeare used the word “leech” (to mean “healer”) only once, in a play that was set in ancient Greece (Timon of Athens), suggesting that the word “leech” was already considered to be archaic. Eight physicians appear as characters in Shakespeare’s plays (seven appear on stage; an eighth physician plays an important role after his off-stage death).¹¹ They are variously named “doctor,” “physician,” or, in two cases, both (“Doctor Butts, physician to the King,” in Henry VIII; and “Dr. Caius, the renowned French physician” in Merry Wives of Windsor). No surgeons appear on stage in Shakespeare’s plays, but characters who need a surgeon always call specifically for a “surgeon.” The fifty-three uses of “doctor” by Shakespeare include three uses to refer to a fraudulent medical practitioner, “Doctor Pinch” in Comedy of Errors, who takes the patient’s pulse and asserts that he can treat mental illness.

It is curious that the King James Bible, translated during Shakespeare’s lifetime by a team of forty-seven scholars selected by King James I, only referred to medical practitioners as “physician,” and did so eleven times (four times in the Old Testament and seven in the New Testament¹²) (Tables I, II). It did not use “doctor” to mean “healer,”¹² nor did it use the words “leech” or “surgeon.” There is no clear reason why these scholars, working in the same city where Shakespeare wrote, should have referred to medical practitioners so differently from Shakespeare. This is also striking because of Shakespeare’s direct influence on spoken and written English; many of Shakespeare’s metaphors and invented words eventually became commonly used in Modern English.¹³ The choice of the translators to use only “physician” and not “doctor” could conceivably be because the New Testament was translated into English from Greek and “physician” is from a Greek root. Perhaps there might even have been a directive to the translators to use words derived from Greek, but this is only conjecture.

The word “doctor” has also been used for centuries to mean an educated but non-medical person. Examples include use four times by Chaucer⁹ (“doctour” or “doctours” in The Canterbury Tales: “Nonnes Prestes Tale,” “Phisiciens Tale,” “Seconde Nonnes Tale,” and “Freres Tale”), twenty times by Shakespeare¹⁰ (sixteen times to mean a “doctor of laws” in Merchant of Venice, three times to mean a learned man in Much Ado about Nothing and Henry VIII, and once to mean a theologian in Richard III), and three times in the King James Bible (“doctor” or “doctors” to mean a “doctor of the law” in Luke and Acts and to mean a learned person in Luke).¹²

Today we refer to medical practitioners as “doctor,” “physician,” and “surgeon.” To evaluate the frequency, a search was made of The New York Times^14,15 from one month in 2021 as representative of modern usage. Citations were limited to articles and obituaries.¹⁵ The designation “doctor” (to mean “healer”) was used 241 times, “physician” was used 65 times, and “surgeon” was used 29 times. The word “leech” was not used at all for “healer.” It appears that we now use “doctor” far more frequently than “physician,” at least in written English in the United States.

References

1. Thomas L. The Youngest Science: Notes of a Medicine-Watcher. New York: Viking Press, 1983, pgs. 53-4.
2. Kao A and Geraghty K. “A physician by any other name.” AMA J Ethics 2001;3:257-258. Viewed at https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/physician-any-other-name/2001-08#:~:text=The%20term%20%22physician%22%20has%20been,study%20of%20the%20natural%20world.
3. Brown L, editor. The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993.
4. Bosworth J. An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary Online, edited by Toller TN, Crist S, and Tichy O. Prague: Faculty of Arts, Charles University, 2014. Viewed at https://bosworthtoller.com/20909.
5. Mory RN, Mindell D, Bloom DA. “The leech and the physician: Biology, etymology, and medical practice with Hirudinea medicinalis.” World J Surg 2000;24:878-83.
6. Mayhew AL and Skeat WW. A Concise Dictionary of Middle English. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1888 [sic]. Viewed at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/10625/10625-h/10625-h.htm.
7. Stratmann FH and Bradley H. Middle English Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1891 [sic]. Viewed at https://archive.org/details/middleenglishdic00stra/mode/2up?view=theater&q=physician.
8. Columbia University. Chaucer Concordance. Viewed at https://www.columbia.edu/~hfl2110/cconcord.html. This database does not merge singular, plural, and possessive forms of the words. However, the number of usages shown in this paper represents all of these forms together. 
9. Chaucer G. The Canterbury Tales (from the text of W.W. Skeat). New York: Avenel Books, 1985. Also available from The Project Gutenberg eBook of Chaucer’s Works. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900 [sic]. Viewed at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/22120/22120-h/22120-h.htm.
10. Open Source Shakespeare. Concordance of Shakespeare’s Complete Works. Fairfax: George Mason University, 2023-2025. Viewed at https://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/concordance/. This database permits searching for singular, plural, and possessive forms of the words simultaneously.
11. Tabor, E. “The eight physicians of Shakespeare.” Hektoen Int., Winter 2024. Viewed at https://hekint.org/2024/04/01/the-eight-physicians-of-shakespeare/.
12. “Bible Concordance.” King James Bible – Online Study Bible. Viewed at https://thekingsbible.com/Concordance. This database does not merge singular, plural, and possessive forms of the words. However, the number of usages shown in this paper represents all of these forms together.
13. Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. “Shakespeare’s words.” Viewed at https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/shakespedia/shakespeares-words/#:~:text=William%20Shakespeare%20is%20credited%20with,still%20used%20in%20English%20today.
14. Proquest. Database: ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times 01/01/1923 through 12/31/2021. Viewed at https://about.proquest.com/en/content-solutions/databases/.
15. The New York Times issues from December 1-31, 2021 were used as a representation of modern usage. Only articles and obituaries were included. Advertisements, corrections, and crossword puzzles were excluded, as well as uses that were figurative (“sofa doctor”), non-medical academic (“juris doctor”), or names of organizations (“Doctors Without Borders”).
16. The Poetry Foundation. Geoffrey Chaucer. Viewed at https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/geoffrey-chaucer.
17. Harrison GB, ed. Shakespeare: The Complete Works. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1952, pgs. 9, 1502.
18. Shakespeare W. “The Text of Shakespeare’s Will.” Internet Shakespeare Editions. Viewed at https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/life/retirement/will+1.html.
19. Simpson RR. Shakespeare and Medicine. Edinburgh: E. & S. Livingstone, 1962, pages 91-126; plate II (opposite pg. 96).
20. Holy Bible: King James Version (“King James Bible”). Vereeniging (South Africa): Christian Art Publishers, 2016.

Table I. The Use of “Doctor,” “Physician,” “Leech,” and “Surgeon” as Names for Medical Practitioners by Selected Authors^a

^a Sources for these word counts are: Chaucer = reference #8; Shakespeare = reference #10; King James Bible = reference #12.
^b Number of times the word was used by each author, although the spelling varied from age to age, as described in the text.
^c Chaucer’s lifetime was c. 1343–1400; his writing life extended from c. 1368–1400.¹⁶ Shakespeare’s lifetime was 1564–1616; his writing life was from 1592–1613 (some scholars assert that he began writing in 1587).^17
d Chaucer used “doctour” (to mean “healer”) in The Canterbury Tales (“Prologue”).
^e Chaucer used “phisicien” in The Canterbury Tales (“Melibeus”, “Phisiciens Tale”) and in The Book of the Duchess. (The total of 11 uses includes the title of “The Phisiciens Tale” which is not counted in the Chaucer Concordance, reference #8.)
^f Chaucer used “leche” in The Canterbury Tales (“Reves Tale,” “Pardoners Tale,” “Somnours Tale,” and “Seconde Nonnes Tale”), The Book of the Duchess, and Troilus and Criseyde.
^g Chaucer used “surgien” in The Canterbury Tales (“Melibeus”).
^h Excluding use in stage directions
ⁱ Shakespeare’s son-in-law, John Hall, practiced medicine in Stratford. Shakespeare referred to him in his (Shakespeare’s) will as “my Sonne in Lawe John Hall gent,”¹⁸ and not as physician, doctor, or leech. However, John Hall appears to have been known by the title “physician,” because in 1657, a volume of case reports from his practice was published posthumously and listed the author on the title page as “Mr. John Hall Physician.”^19
j Shakespeare used “doctor” (to mean “healer”) in All’s Well that Ends Well, Comedy of Errors, Cymbeline, Hamlet, Henry IV Part II, Henry VIII, Macbeth, Merry Wives of Windsor, “Sonnet 66,” and Taming of the Shrew.
^k Shakespeare used “physician” in All’s Well that Ends Well, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Cymbeline, Henry IV Part I, Henry IV Part II, Henry VIII, King Lear, Macbeth, Merry Wives of Windsor, Othello, Pericles, “Rape of Lucrece,” Richard II, Richard III, “Sonnet 140,” “Sonnet 147,” Taming of the Shrew, Timon of Athens, Troilus and Cressida, Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Winter’s Tale.
^l Shakespeare used “leech” (to mean “healer”) in Timon of Athens.
^m Shakespeare used “surgeon” in Henry V, Henry VI Part I, Julius Caesar, King Lear, Macbeth, Merchant of Venice, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello, Pericles, Romeo and Juliet, and Twelfth Night.
ⁿ In addition to these 14 uses of “surgeon,” Shakespeare used the word “chirurgeonly” one time in a metaphor about putting a “plaster” (bandage) on a “sore.” [Tempest II:i:152]
^o In the King James Bible, the word “physician” is used in 2 Chronicles, Colossians, Genesis, Jeremiah, Job, Luke, Mark, and Matthew.
^p Only articles and obituaries were included.

Table II. Representative Uses of “Doctor,” “Physician,” “Leech,” and “Surgeon” by Chaucer, Shakespeare, and the King James Bible^a

^a Quotations in this table are from references #9, #17, and #20.
^b Two different spellings (“phisyk,” “phisik”) were used within these three lines.