attorney
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English attourne, from Old French atorné, past participle of atorner, atourner, aturner (“to attorn”), in the sense of "one appointed or constituted".[1]
Pronunciation
Noun
attorney (plural attorneys or (obsolete) attornies)
- (US) A lawyer; one who advises or represents others in legal matters as a profession.
- 2013, James J. Gross, It's Splitsville: Surviving Your Divorce, page 240:
- If those attempts are unsuccessful, the attorney requesting the interrogatories may file a motion for sanctions with the court. The sanctions range from attorney fees to prohibiting the nonanswering party from presenting or defending claims.
- 2017, Diane Medved, Don't Divorce:
- “Conflicting out” attorneys is the way a husband will make sure his wife doesn't hire any of the most aggressive lawyers in town.
- (UK, dated, 19th century and earlier) One such who practised in the courts of the common law.
- (UK, 20th century and later, rare, usually derogatory) A solicitor.
- (obsolete outside set phrases) An agent or representative authorized to act on someone else's behalf.
- (Philippines, sometimes US) An honorific given to lawyers and notaries public, or those holders by profession who also do other jobs. Usually capitalized or abbreviated as Atty.
- Clusia spp.
- A prosecutor
Usage notes
- In the "agent" sense, the word is now used to refer to nonlawyers usually only in fixed phrases such as attorney-in-fact or power of attorney.
Quotations
- 1809, “Counsel”, in The Monthly Mirror: Reflecting Men and Manners. With Strictures on Their Epitome, the Stage., volume VI, London: […] for the Proprietors, by Harding and Wright, […]; […] Vernor, Hood, and Sharpe, […]; J[ohn] Murray, […]; A[rchibald] Constable and Co., Edinburgh; […], page 212:
- It is not here meant that there ever was any positive rule or law, which prevented this freedom between barrister and attorney; but by the étiquette of the profession, the former preserved a dignity, that kept the latter at a distance—this is the barrier at present removed through the eagerness of barristers to procure business by flattering and courting attornies, who have the distribution of it.
Synonyms
- mouthpiece (slang)
- advocate
Derived terms
- attorney-at-law
- attorney at law
- attorney-client privilege
- attorneydom
- attorney general
- attorney-general
- attorney-in-fact
- attorneyism
- attorney of record
- attorney record
- attorneyship
- cartooney
- Crown attorney
- defense attorney
- district attorney
- letter of attorney
- patent attorney
- power of attorney (POA)
- prosecuting attorney
- Scotch attorney
- subattorney
- substitution of attorney
- trade mark attorney
- United States Attorney
- warrant of attorney
Descendants
Translations
lawyer
|
agent/representative
|
Verb
attorney (third-person singular simple present attorneys, present participle attorneying, simple past and past participle attorneyed)
- (intransitive, rare) To work as a legal attorney.
- (transitive, rare) To provide with a legal attorney.
References
- “attorney”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary (1971), p. 553.
French
Pronunciation
Audio: (file)
Noun
attorney m (plural attorneys)
Further reading
- “attorney”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɜː(ɹ)ni
- Rhymes:English/ɜː(ɹ)ni/3 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English nouns with irregular plurals
- American English
- English terms with quotations
- British English
- English dated terms
- English terms with rare senses
- English derogatory terms
- English terms with obsolete senses
- Philippine English
- English verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- English transitive verbs
- en:Legal occupations
- French terms with audio pronunciation
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French masculine nouns