What is a Sawbones?

A sawbones is a slang term used to describe a physician, and more specifically a surgeon, especially one who would have served in battle. The term is often tied to the Civil War, but in fact predates it. Dickens uses it to refer to a doctor in the 1837 novel Pickwick Papers which suggests common use of the expression at least 20 years prior to usage during the American Civil War. The path from surgeon to sawbones is an easy one to follow. One of the principal means of treating infected wounds, large or small, was through amputation. Long before the advent of antibiotics, the danger of gangrene developing from even the very slightest cuts often had surgeons lopping of extremities or limbs in order to avoid blood poisoning. Wounds were then often cauterized (burned) with heated pokers. In order to cut through a limb or extremity, you had to literally saw through bones. Thus the term sawbones makes a great deal of sense. It’s a quite grisly nickname when you come to realize its origin. Th ... more