Lots of people use chiropractic medicine to ease their pains, my wife included. In a discussion with a soon-to-be chiropracter, I asked about the origins of the nouns chiropractic and chiropractor. Alas, he did not know. My curiosity piqued, I did some searching; here is what I found.
Chiropractic is from the Greek words "cheir" (hand) and "praktikos" (efficient) but was suggested in its combined form by the Rev. Samuel Weed of Bloomington, IL, an early patient. In 1898, Dr. Palmer Chiripractic School & Cure, Daniel D. Palmer, propietor, was listed in "Stone's Davenport (Iowa) City Directory." it was Dr. Palmer who freely translated Rev. Weed's suggested name as "done by hand."
Chiropractor made its first appearance in a dictionary in Dorland's Medical Dictionary 7e (1913). Even after many years of fighting for equal status, the medical dictionaries still refer to chiropractic as theoretical, thus unproven.
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