why do people love to preface the word doctor with good? my father always says the 'good' doctor and it is commonly said in all forms of media. does anyone know the origin?

Maybe the encomium is used to distingush the doctor from a quack or a witch doctor. :)

Actually, the term "the good doctor" brings to mind the venerable salutation "my good fellow". It's a sign of respect, wouldn't you say?*

Doctors represent the only traditional profession which commands any respect in the estimation of the average citizen nowadays, and even that respect is a pale shadow of what it once was when the term "the good doctor" was in vogue in much simpler, less litigious times. In those days, doctors made house calls and received payment in kind more often than with money, particularly during the Depression.

Back then, being a doctor was more of a calling, like the priesthood, than a profession.

* Good
Dictionary.com

6. Worthy of respect; honorable

prolly not the origin, but..

A doctor, like anyone else who has to deal with human beings, each of them unique, cannot be a scientist; he is either, like the surgeon, a craftsman, or, like the physician and the psychologist, an artist. This means that in order to be a good doctor a man must also have a good character, that is to say, whatever weaknesses and foibles he may have, he must love his fellow human beings in the concrete and desire their good before his own.
- W. H. Auden

he must love his fellow human beings --- and desire their good before his own

Yeah, that gets to the heart of it, tsuwm. Nice quote.

Of course, the quintessential Good Doctor had his doctorate in biochemistry.

http://www.nndb.com/people/702/000023633/

Hogwash, Faldage.

The Good Doctor was the nickname-of-honor bestowed by the people as well as the literati on Anton Chekhov, the great Russian playwright, poet, and, arguably, the greatest short story writer ever who is credited with elevating the modern short story to an art form...with Somerset Maugham and Guy de Maupassant close seconds. "The Good Doctor" is also the title of a play written in tribute to Chekhov by Neil Simon.


http://www.stfm.org/fmhub/Fullpdf/Jan01/lame.pdf

http://www.eldritchpress.org/ac/yr/Anton_Chekhov.html

http://www.players.rpi.edu/current_season/72/good_doctor.php

Therefore, I assert to my good friend, Faldage, across the aisle, that Asimov is far removed from the quintessential
"Good Doctor"...that honor belongs to Anton Chekhov.

Hi Britt,
Curiously enough, this phrase seems to be limited to the English language. It is not current either in German or French.

Anton Chekhov

So what was Asimov, the quartessential Good Doctor?

Quantumessential possibly.

missessential

So what was Asimov, the quartessential Good Doctor?

The quarkessential?

quarkessential

Hard to top that, W'ON.

Is a quark a quantum quirk, I wonder.

Is a quark a quantum quirk, I wonder.
No, Quark is the bartender in the Sci-Fi series "Deep Space Nine. (DS-9)"

And Quark was a Ferengi, which is originally from the Persian word faranji, meaning Frank. It has come to mean any European in India but is used primarily in reference to Indian born Portuguese.

My Hindi-English dictionary lists firangi as "obs", but the word is still heard in Hindi movies, often with the same sort of contemptuous tones used for its Star Trek cousin.

And Penang in Malaysia has what is now a very popular tourist resort called Batu Ferringhi. When I visited the island in 1985, it was not so developed -- just a beach with a few cafes if I remember rightly. I was told the Ferringhi part came from farang, the Thai for '(Western) foreigner', which is I believe also related.

Bingley