attorney
English
Alternative forms
- actorney (obsolete)
Etymology
From Middle English attourne, from Old French atorné, masculine singular past participle of atorner, atourner, aturner ("to attorn", in the sense of "one appointed or constituted").[1]
Pronunciation
Audio (US) (file) - IPA(key): /əˈtɜː(ɹ)ni/
- Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)ni
Noun
attorney (plural attorneys or (obsolete) attornies)
- (US) A lawyer; one who advises or represents others in legal matters as a profession.
- (UK, dated, 19th century and earlier) One such who practised in the courts of the common law.
- Coordinate terms: proctor, solicitor
- (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
- attorney-general
- attorney general
- attorney-in-fact
- attorney of record
- Crown attorney
- defense attorney
- district attorney
- letter of attorney
- patent attorney
- power of attorney (POA)
- prosecuting attorney
- substitution of attorney
- trade mark attorney
- warrant of attorney
Descendants
- → Punjabi: ਅਟਾਰਨੀ (aṭārnī)
- → Welsh: atwrnai
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 at OneLook Dictionary Search
- Oxford English Dictionary (1971), p. 553.
French
Pronunciation
Audio (file)
Noun
attorney m (plural attorneys)
- attorney
Further reading
- “attorney”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.