>> So for all the reasons above when any physician tries to suggest that a physician is the only “real doctor” you can roll your eyes and suggest they crack ope

>> So for all the reasons above when any physician tries to suggest that a physician is the only “real doctor” you can roll your eyes and suggest they crack open a history book and then let them go back to stroking their own ego. > As to the origin of the title in a medical setting, you may be right, but it has been used that way for a long time now. Being pedantic about its usage isn't helpful when there are lots of bad actors trying to confuse people by referring to its commonly understood meaning. I wouldn't exactly call it pedantic, just wrong. It's little more than appeal to the remote past as true and correct, which treats and changes or innovations since then as illegitimate. Also, IIRC, the physician = "real doctor" thing is often just a reflection of the respect and familiarity that ordinary people have for physicians, not some kind of pompousness by physicians themselves.