# attorney
## English
### Alternative forms

* actorney (obsolete)

### 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".

### Pronunciation

* Audio (US):(file)
* IPA: /əˈtɜː(ɹ)ni/
* (Philippines, nonstandard) IPA: /ʔɐˈtoɹ.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.
    Synonyms: lawyer, barrister, solicitor, counsel, counselor, advocate (all sometimes with narrower distinctions)
    Hypernym: person
    Hyponyms: defense attorney, defender, public defender; prosecuting attorney, prosecutor
** 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.
    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.
    Coordinate term: power of attorney
    Near-synonyms: agent, proxy, representative
* (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.

#### 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

* → Punjabi: ਅਟਾਰਨੀ (aṭārnī)
* → Welsh: atwrnai

#### See also

* mouthpiece
* spokesperson

### 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)
* attorney

### Further reading

* “attorney”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.