Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A person trained and licensed to practice medicine; a medical doctor.
  • noun A person who heals or exerts a healing influence.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who practises the art of healing disease and of preserving health; a prescriber of remedies for sickness and disease; specifically, a person licensed by some competent authority, such as a medical college, to treat diseases and pre scribe remedies for them; a doctor; a medical man.
  • noun A student of physics; a naturalist; a physicist; specifically, in medieval universities, a student of the Aristotelian physics.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A person skilled in physic, or the art of healing; one duty authorized to prescribe remedies for, and treat, diseases; a doctor of medicine.
  • noun Hence, figuratively, one who ministers to moral diseases.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A practitioner of physic, i.e. a specialist in internal medicine, especially as opposed to a surgeon; a practitioner who treats with medication rather than with surgery.
  • noun A medical doctor trained in human medicine.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a licensed medical practitioner

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English fisicien, from Old French, from fisique, medical science; see physic.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English fisicien, from Old French fisicïen ("physician"), from fisique ("art of healing"), from Latin physica ("natural science"), from Ancient Greek φυσική επιστήμη (knowledge of nature) from φυσικός (pertaining to nature) from φύσις (nature) from φύειν (to bring forth, to produce) from Proto-Indo-European *bʰew- (“to exist, grow”). Displaced native Middle English læche, leche, archaic Modern English leech "physician" (from Old English lǣċe ("physician, medical doctor")).

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Examples

  • Ryan Mascio, a second-year medical resident, said he came to celebrate with Ashley because being a physician is about more than diagnosing and dosing.

    For one cancer patient, it was a prom night to remember 2010

  • Another challenge for the physician is the tradition of personal referral.

    Wait-Time Strategy 2007

  • If your physician is a medical professional licensed in your state, then ask him or her to set up an account with Nutrasource Diagnostic Inc. at?????????

    The Zone Has Entered A New Stratosphere – Part Two 2006

  • We believe that women know their families and know when their children are sick and whether or not a physician is able to recognise it.

    The Mandate of Ontario's Women's Health Council 1999

  • Also borrowed from the physician is the X-ray machine.

    A Modern Crusade Against Crime 1939

  • Persian ladies in their medical visits, that a physician is a privileged person in Persia.

    Glimpses of Life and Manners in Persia 1856

  • "Two years ago we began looking around the country for what we call physician-scientists - physicians who are also experts in science and research - particularly in the area of cancer because we already had a good base of cancer research," Berk said.

    The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal:Today's Headlines 2008

  • Every minister of religion authorized to preach according to the rules of his church, and who, at the passage of this act, shall be regularly employed in the discharge of his ministerial duties; superintendents and physicians of asylums for the deaf, dumb and blind and of the insane; one editor for each newspaper being published at the time of the passage of this act, and such employees as said editor may certify on oath to be indispensable to the publication of such newspaper; the public printer of the confederate and state governments, and such journeymen printers as the said public printer shall certify on oath to be indispensable to perform the public printing; one skilled apothecary in each apothecary store, who was doing business as such apothecary on the tenth day of October 1862, and has continued said business without intermission since that period; all physicians over the age of thirty years who now are, and for the last seven years have been in the actual and regular practice of their profession; but the term physician shall not include dentists.

    Laws of Congress in Regard to Taxes, Currency and Conscription, Passed February 1864. Confederate States of America 1864

  • Henry Bowman, MD: This physician is ready to quit .... or do fee for service work in an urgent care center

    The Volokh Conspiracy » 13 States File Suit Against Health Care Reform 2010

  • Henry Bowman, MD: This physician is ready to quit .... or do fee for service work in an urgent care center

    The Volokh Conspiracy » 13 States File Suit Against Health Care Reform 2010

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  • Science Friday article on the origin of the word Physician

    http://sciencefriday.com/segment/01/28/2011/science-diction-the-origin-of-physician.html

    "In the 13th century, Anglo-Normans appropriated the French physique, or remedy, to coin the English physic, or medicine, which is still in dictionaries today. Science historian Howard Markel discusses how physic became physician, and the parallel evolution of the word physics."

    March 26, 2015