Attorney

How to spell attorney

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce attorney

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does attorney mean?

1. nounA qualified legal practitioner who advises clients and represents them in legal matters, especially in American usage.
2. nounA person legally appointed to act on behalf of another, as in a power of attorney.

Attorney in a sentence

• The defendant hired an experienced attorney to handle the case.

• She named her son as her attorney so he could sign documents on her behalf.

• Her attorney reviewed the contract before she signed it.

• As his attorney, she could manage his bank accounts while he was abroad.

Where does attorney come from?

Language of origin: French

The word comes from the Old French atorne, the past participle of atorner, a verb meaning 'to assign, appoint, or prepare'. That verb was built from a- (a sense of 'to', from Latin ad) plus torner 'to turn', which traces back to the Latin tornare, meaning 'to turn on a lathe' and so 'to shape or arrange'. The underlying idea was of someone 'turned toward' a task, that is, formally appointed to act in another person's place. English took the word in during the 1300s to describe a person legally authorised to act for someone else, and from there it narrowed to mean a qualified legal agent or lawyer. The spelling trap is the double t followed by a single r and the unstressed final '-ey', which sounds like a plain 'ee' yet is written with that French-derived ending.

How the word is built

• a- (to, from Latin ad)
• torn (to turn, assign)
• -ey (noun suffix, agent who is appointed)