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.
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.
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”
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.
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.
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.