Forms: 6–7 barester, 6–8 barrester, 7 barraster, 7– barrister. [f. BAR sb.1 (or F. barre or med.L. barra): the rest of the word is obscure, being formerly written -ester, -aster, but now -ister, perh. after words like chorister, sophister, but there is no trace of an earlier *barrist, like chorist, sophist; Spelman cites 16th c. L. barrasterius (probably formed from the Eng.).]
A student of the law, who, having been called to the bar, has the privilege of practising as advocate in the superior courts of law. The formal title is barrister-at-law; the equivalent designation in Scotland is advocate.
The name originated in the ancient internal arrangements of the Inns of Court: see quot. 1545 infra, and BAR sb. 24. But by 1600, it was currently associated with the bar of the courts of justice, at which utter-barristers had before that date secured the right to plead, formerly possessed only by sergeants and apprentices-at-law.
c. 1545. T. Denton, N. Bacon, and R. Cary, Return to Hen. VIII. of State of Inns of Court (in Waterhouse, Comment. on Fortescue, 1663, 544). The whole company and fellowship of learners is divided … into three … degrees:… Benchers, or as they call them in some of the houses, Readers, Utter-Barresters, and Inner-Barresters … Utter-Barresters are such, that for their learning and continuance, are called by the Readers to plead and argue in the said house doubtful cases and questions … and are called Utter-Barresters for that they, when they argue the said Motes, sit uttermost on the formes which are called the Barr, and this degree is the chiefest … in the house, next the Benchers. All the residue of learners are called Inner-Barresters, which are the youngest men.
c. 1570. Thynne, Pride & Lowl. (1841), 70. Therefore beseech I.. Barresters, or how so ye be termed, To Judgen it after your wisdome.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 167. Expert Advocates or Barristers … to plead for us.
a. 1613. Overbury, A Wife (1638), 176. The velvet breeches he was first made Barester in.
1676. Bullokar, Barrester, he that is allowed to plead causes at the barre.
a. 1674. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. III. 158. William Pryn, a Barrester of Lincoln’s-Inn.
1722. T. Wood, Inst. Laws Eng. (1763), 465. A Barrister (heretofore called an Apprentice of the Law) is a counsellor learned in the Law … admitted to plead without the Bar.
1725. Lond. Gaz., No. 6380/14. Joshua Ireland … Barrister at Law.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., III. 26. Of advocates, or counsel, there are two species or degrees; barristers, and serjeants.
1836. Hor. Smith, Tin Trump. (1876), 52. All briefless barristers will please to consider themselves excepted.
b. Inner, Utter, Vacation barrister (all obs.): see quot. and cf. c. 1545 above. Revising barrister: one appointed to revise the lists of persons qualified to vote for Members of Parliament.
a. 1547. in Dugdale, Orig. Jurid. (1671), 148. The Masters commens are ferder divided into three Companies; that is to say, no Utter-Barristers, Utter-Barristers, and Benchers.
1584. Wills & Inv. N. C. (1860), 105. So longe as he remayneth at th’ins of courte, vntyll he be utter barester.
1607. Cowell, Interpr., s.v. Utter-Barristers, A barrister newly called is to attend the six next long Vacations the Exercise of the House … and is therefore for those three years called a Vacation Barrister. And they are called utter Barristers, i. Pleaders without the Bar to distinguish them from Benchers … who are sometimes admitted to plead within the Bar.
1835. Penny Cycl., III. 503. Students of the law under the degree of utter barristers, took their places nearer to the centre of the hall and farther from the bar, and from this manner of distribution appear to have been called inner barristers.
