PETTIFOGGER


Meaning of PETTIFOGGER in English

■ noun archaic an inferior legal practitioner.

Origin

C16: from petty + obs. fogger 'underhand dealer', prob. from Fugger , the name of a family of merchants in Augsburg in the 15th and 16th cents.

Concise Oxford English vocab.      Сжатый оксфордский словарь английского языка.