barrister

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a lawyer qualified to plead in the higher courts (chiefly British)

   The barrister donned her wig and addressed the bench.

Simplified etymology

Barrister entered English in the late Middle Ages and derives from the legal sense of bar. At the English Inns of Court, a physical bar separated students from qualified lawyers; a student admitted to the profession was therefore “called to the bar.”

From bar (the railing in court separating counsel from the public, hence the legal profession) plus an ending modeled on minister; one 'called to the bar'.

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External links

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