pettifogger

American  

[pe-tee-fawg-er] / ˈpɛ tiˌfɔg ər /

noun

pettifoggers plural

1. a person who engages in pettifogging.

2. a dishonest, unskilled, or underhanded lawyer.

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pettifogger British  

/ ˈpɛtɪˌfɒɡə /

noun

1. a lawyer of inferior status who conducts unimportant cases, esp one who is unscrupulous or resorts to trickery

2. any person who quibbles or fusses over details

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• pettifoggery
  noun

Inflected Forms

noun

• pettifoggers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of pettifogger

C16: from _petty + fogger, of uncertain origin, perhaps from Fugger, name of a family (C15–16) of German financiers

Explanation

A sneaky, underhanded lawyer is a pettifogger. If your neighbor hires an unscrupulous quack to sue you, you might call his attorney a pettifogger. You don't hear the word pettifogger much these days, since the word is fairly archaic, but you might come across it in an old book. A bad lawyer, or pettifogger, used dubious means to get clients and to win cases. The mid-16th century word itself combined petty — "small," from the French petit — with the obsolete word fogger, "underhanded dealer," which probably came from a wealthy 15th century Bavarian family of merchants, the Fuggers.

Example Sentences

“Bear witness, I pray you all,” said the Pettifogger, “as to what the knave called me.”

From The Sleeping Bard or, Visions of the World, Death, and Hell by Borrow, George Henry

“Bouncer, Coxcomb, and Contriver on the one side,” he added, “and on the other Slanderer, Pettifogger, and Meddler are a compound, enough to make a thousand devils sweat their bowels out.”

From The Sleeping Bard or, Visions of the World, Death, and Hell by Borrow, George Henry

Pettifogger, pet′i-fog-ėr, n. a lawyer who practises only in paltry cases.—v.i.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 3 of 4: N-R) by Various

“You shall be called,” said the Impeacher, “master Litigious Pettifogger, alias the Courts Comprised.”

From The Sleeping Bard or, Visions of the World, Death, and Hell by Borrow, George Henry

I could see the prisoners cast headlong down the gulf, and Pettifogger rushing to fling himself over the terrific brink, rather than look once on the court of Justice. 

From The Sleeping Bard or, Visions of the World, Death, and Hell by Borrow, George Henry

Related Words

• con artist
• hypocrite