1690s, of persons going to oracles, from L. consultantem, prp. of consultare (see consultation). Of physicians, from 1878; meaning "one qualified to give professional advice" is first attested 1893 in a "Sherlock Holmes" story. Related: Consultancy (1955).

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Medical Dictionary

consultant con·sult·ant (kən-sŭl'tənt)
n.

A physician or surgeon who does not take actual charge of a patient, but acts in an advisory capacity to the patient's primary physician.
Such a member of a hospital staff who may advise the attending physician or surgeon.

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"People on the East Coast regard people west of, say, Philadelphia as either slightly cute or slightly repugnant, alien life forms. Any show that comes from out of town to New York invariably gets a review which says in effect, "They might like this stuff in Hicksville, but this is the Apple, Kids. This is the eye of God." Californians don't have that kind of arrogance, luckily, because they can't pay attention long enough to finish anything. That's why so many Californians are consultants or producers, and so many people in the East are writers or directors. Never mind that most writers on the best-seller lists couldn't put a well-formed sentence together if you gave them the glue, or that the so-called "serious" writers only write about writers writing stories about writers writing stories, the two coasts are still the cultural power centers of America: books, theater, and art in the East; movies, music, and TV in the West."

-Ian Shoales