Word of the Day

: January 23, 2007

pettifogger

noun PET-ee-fog-ur

What It Means

1 : a lawyer whose methods are petty, underhanded, or disreputable : shyster

2 : one given to quibbling over trifles

pettifogger in Context

Charles Dickens's Uriah Heep was a complete pettifogger, an unctuous villain whose name became a byword for a falsely humble hypocrite.

Did You Know?

In its earliest English uses, "pettifogger" was two separate words: "pettie fogger." "Pettie" was a variant spelling of "petty," a reasonable inclusion in a word for someone who is disreputable and small-minded. But why "fogger"? It may come from "Fugger," the name of a successful family of 15th- and 16th-century German merchants and financiers. Germanic variations of "fugger" were used for the wealthy and avaricious, as well as for hucksters. In English, a "pettie fogger" was originally a small-time operator of a shady business. We're not sure why the word came to be applied specifically to lawyers, but it appears to have initially referred to lower-status attorneys who argued the smaller, less important cases.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.