Saying eye doctor in a conversation feels normal. Saying tooth doctor feels like listening to someone who had a bad disco elysium roll and they’re punching themselves in the face to get the words out.
Probably because of the more common word “dentist”.
That’s because it’s shorter, eye doctor is slightly shorter and easier to say and spell than opthamologist
counterpoint: paediatrician.
I think the ‘easier to say’ part is the key thing here. “Pee-dee-atrition” is a lot easier for most English speakers that “op-tha-mologist”. I think the “th” throws people off enough to just say “eye doc”
I don’t quite see it, but I’m used to saying opthamologist because of Tim Minchin and I’m not a native speaker. But seems plausible.
It’s even harder to spell than it is to say “ophthalmologist” What are the extra h and l doing there? I don’t know. Most people forget them. Another English word not really pronounced like it’s spelled. Trips me up every time I try to type it out. Optometrist, the non-MD eye doctor, much easier to say and spell.
Well you could just shorten it and call them a paedo.
I’d argue it’s magnitudes easier to say.
In the UK we see the optician. E z.
In the US at least, an optician is specifically a vendor of eyeglasses. The person who measures your vision and gives you the prescription is usually an optometrist. Neither of the above are physicians; whereas an ophthalmologist is a physician who treats eye diseases.
Funny, because in German it’s exactly that: Tooth doctor (Zahnarzt).
The one that always bothered me is Hals-Nasen-Ohren-Arzt. Why is it Nasen? We only have one. It should either be Hälse-Nasen-Ohren Arzt or Hals-Nase-Ohren-Arzt.
In Dutch it’s the same, but we just say “KNO-arts”, for “throat, nose and ear”.
I never thought about that. Now it bothers me too. Thank you.
I’m already trying to contact the Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache. We can get this sorted.
Perfect!
Tierarzt sounds normal but animal doctor sounds weird
But that’s because you learned english and know it’s called a vet. Direct word-for-word translations are often supposed to be weird because that’s just not how it works.
Yes and y’all also use the French word for “curly” to say hair dresser… So…
Similarly, saying butt doctor doesn’t have the same ring to it as proctologist, but either way they’re checking for rings around Uranus.
Even worse is child doctor. I’m thinking of a child dressed as a doctor, not a paediatrician.
Don’t be an anti-dentite
Dentists and podiatrists don’t go to med school in the US.
Podiatry School is a medical school. 4 years plus a 3 year residency.
Dentists go to teeth college
uh well where I live: https://emergencytoothdoctor.com/
they do in fact take care of emergencies too. They pulled a tooth for me on walk in.