"a pea in the ear" "iatric mystique" "ear wig" Years ago quacks kept a defunct earwig in vest poocket, to be produced to impress neurotics when allegedly removed from ear canal.

You can't really use "iatric" as a word, can you, Bill?

WW

"iatric" is in my dictionary.

Well, iatric isn't in my AHD as a word, per se, and I just looked it up in MW Collegiate online, and iatric is only listed as a suffix. Another medical reference online did show iatric as a word unto itself referring to anything medicinal or having to do with the medical profession in general.

I expect it's a rare as heck word--but maybe one of the terms of art for your profession.

From my Webster's New World CD, a marvelous ten bucks worth that I have running minimized all the time.

iatric
adj.
5Gr iatrikos < iatros, physician < iasthai, to cure, heal6 of medicine or medical doctors; medical or medicinal Also iatrical

Dubdub:

I'm a compulsive crossword puzzle solver. I don't know what the phenomenon is, but filler words seem to be in vogue for a while, then disappear from the puzzlemakers' lexicons. Currently "iatric" with a definition "of or relating to medicine" is much in vogue.

I wonder what causes this phenomenon. And someone I know is a former puzzlemaker. I must track him down and ask.

TEd (who makes hay while the sun shines)