About
Doctor (gen.: doctoris) means teacher in Latin. The word is originally an agentive noun of the verb docēre (‘teach’).[1] It has been used continuously as an honored academic title for over a millennium in Europe, where it dates back to the rise of the university. This use spread to the Americas, former European colonies, and is now prevalent in most of the world. As a prefix — abbreviated “Dr”— its primary designation is a person who has obtained a doctorate (that is, a doctoral degree), which is the highest rank of academic degree awardable. Doctoral degrees may be “research doctorates”, awarded on the basis of competency in research, or “taught doctorates” (also called “professional doctorates”, because they are invariably awarded in professional subjects), awarded on the basis of coursework and adjunct requirements (if any) successfully completed by the conferee.
In some languages, when addressing several persons of whom each holds a doctor title, one can use the plural abbreviation Dres. (for Latin ‘doctores’). E.g., instead of Dr. Miller and Dr. Rubinstein: Dres. Miller and Rubinstein.
Throughout most of the academic world, the term “doctor” refers to an individual who earned a degree of Doctor of Philosophy, or Ph.D. (an abbreviation for the Latin Philosophiæ Doctor; or alternatively Doctor philosophiæ, D.Phil., originally from the Greek Διδάκτωρ Φιλοσοφίας, Didaktōr Philosophias, meaning Teacher of Philosophy), or other research doctorates such as the Doctor of Science, or Sc.D. (an abbreviation of the Latin Scientiae Doctor) or the EdD (Education), DBA (Business), DPA (Public Administration), etc. Beyond academia and in the classical professions, such as medicine and the law, the professional doctorates emerged such as the Doctor of Medicine M.D. (an abbreviation of the Latin Medicinæ Doctor), or Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery MBBS, MBChB, MB, BCh, etc. (an abbreviation of the Latin Medicinae Baccalaureus et Baccalaureus Chirurgiae), and the Juris Doctor or Doctor of Jurisprudence.
But I am a specific kind of doctor. I have a PHD (which would normally mean a doctorate in Philosophy) but online it merely means Piled Higher and Deeper in TE, this being Taurus Excretus.
All of this is absurdly fake, most of it stolen from wikipedia to prove this poignant point: Just because you find it online doesn’t mean its legit. Even when it says its by a Doctor.