332.Barrister.

—Can any of your correspondents refer me to the etymon of this name, given to a vocation attached to our English courts of law? I can find none even in the comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of Nat. Bailey, unless, indeed, by dividing the word into two portions, viz. "bar" and "rister," and then, with a little of the critic's license, assuming that the latter half might originally have been written "roister." But as this analysis would render it so little characteristic of the class so named, and would strongly imply that some portion at least of that distinguished body was once viewed as the "roisters," i.e. "bullies and blusterers," of that division of our courts called "the Bar," it is evident that we cannot reasonably look for the derivation of the latter part of the word from that source. But still, as there may be those who are inclined, in spite of these cogent objections, to doubt whether this may be its true etymon; and it is fit that any such lurking and slanderous suspicion should be dispelled from every sceptic mind, some one of your curious and learned correspondents, anxious to effect it, will, perhaps, tax his etymological skill to the suggestion of a less offensive, and more just and appropriate derivation, than "Bar-roister."

W. Y.