Should we address physicians as Doctors and PhD holders as Doctorates? My answer: All policy is ultimately derived from tradition(survival HEURISTICs by which populations survived and then reproduced into the current ones), risk analysis(a human operates based on incomplete knowledge because knowing everything is not humanly possible. Thus humans operate based on analyzing risks), and skin in the game(paying a price for being wrong thus being incentivized to operate in a certain way that yields a certain desired result). Therefore, addressing physicians as doctors is a matter of public safety through risk analysis. By and large, as goes the common question "Is there a doctor in the room?" Asking "is there a doctor in the room?" commonly is to find out if a physician is nearby enough to deal with a medical emergency. Instead of, "Is there a physician in the room?" Thus doctor is engrained culturally to mean physician. But still, the etymology of doctor means teacher. Therefore, maybe we should address any PhD holder as Doctorate(insert last name) and any MD holder as Doctor(insert last name). Plus, sometimes the degree in of itself is known as a doctor instead of a doctorate. Therefore, why not call PhD holders doctorates?
Too much time on your hands? As you already pointed out, the narrowed usage of "doctor" by SOME people is the deviation. Language IS fluid, so what is understood is what works. However, if you wish to establish clarity and simplicity in titles, it will be more descriptive to call all medical doctorate holders "Medic" (also more consistent with the "M" of their particular doctorate. In fact, the addition of modifiers to the original "Ph.D" - acknowledged "philosopher" of anything for specific disciplines like medicine, education, and social work - implies that they should be the ones modifying the common label.
I tend to explain straight away that my 'Dr' if someone uses this as a title that I am not a medical doctor.
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