Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

To celebrate the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language, our Word for the wise © this week features one of his definitions beginning with the letter Q:

quack, "a boastful pretender to arts he does not understand," was how the great lexicographer damningly put it. Interestingly, the quack's lexical trail stretches back to mountebank, which the great Doctor defined as "a doctor that mounts a bench in a market and boasts his infallible remedies and cures".

Quackery quickly progressed to the point that some of its cleverest practitioners moved from the marketplace to the mass media, and a London journal of 1772 carried the following claims for an aphrodisiac called "The True Cordial Quintessence of Vipers": A few Days of it only give such a general Warmth, and so exceedingly delight the Vital and Animal Spirits, Senses and Nerves, as soon to show what it will do upon a little Continuance of it; for it not only promotes and prompts Desire, but also furnishes proper Matter for the Support and Establishment of a true and lasting Power and Inclination. Price 10s.6d a bottle."

Note: the Johnson Dictionary Project is putting the whole Dictionary online. Next week, we're at "R". We'll be picking from the "rude" words.