Forms: 4–5 avocat, avoket; 5 advoket, -ette; 5–7 advocat; 5– advocate. Aphetic 5–6 voket, vocate. [a. OFr. avocat, ad. L. advocātus, one summoned or ‘called to’ another, esp. one called in to aid one’s cause in a court of justice; prop. pa. pple. of advocā-re, f. ad to + vocāre to call. The OFr. living descendant of advocātus was avoët, avoé, avoué (see ADVOWEE); avocat was a semi-popular adaptation of the L. title. In 14–16th c. it was often still further conformed to the L. as advocat, an artificial spelling, afterwards abandoned in Fr., which has caused in Eng. a permanent refashioning of the word. See AD- 2.] lit. One called in, or liable to be called upon, to defend or speak for.
1. One whose profession it is to plead the cause of any one in a court of justice; a counsellor or counsel. (The technical title in the Roman law courts, and in those countries which retain the Roman law, as Scotland and France; also in the Admiralty Courts, and many special tribunals existing or historical; but not in ordinary English law courts.)
Faculty of Advocates: the collective body of members of the bar in Scotland. Lord Advocate, formerly King’s (or Queen’s) A., the principal law-officer of the crown in Scotland, answering to the Attorney-General in England. Judge-Advocate, the officer who manages the prosecution before a court-martial, the supreme officer for the whole army being the Judge-Advocate-General. Advocate is also in the city of Aberdeen a local title for a solicitor. Devils’ Advocate (see quotation).
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 6084. For-why þai sal þan na help gett Of sergeaunt, ne auturne, ne avoket.
1382. Wyclif, Acts xxiv. 1. Tertulle, sum oratour, or fair speker, or avocat.
1387. Trevisa, Higden, Rolls Ser. II. 373. For þe delyueraunce of þe advoketes and ditoures.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. III. 61. Foragers and vytailers · and vokettus of þe Arches [v.r. voketts, vocates, a-uoketes, B. vokates].
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 5724. Phiciciens and advocates Gone right by the same yates. They selle her science for wynnyng.
1483. Caxton, Cato, b j, b. They may selle their scyence and kunnyng for siluer … As done these grete auocates.
c. 1538. Starkey, Eng., 118. Thes hungry Aduocatys and cormorantys of the law.
1635. Quarles, Emblems, I. v. (1718), 21. There was no client then to wait The leisure of his long-tail’d advocate.
1679. Indictment, Trial of Langhorn, 3. The Place and Office of Advocate General of the Army aforesaid.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., III. iii. Of advocates or (as we generally call them) counsel, there are two species or degrees, barristers and sergeants.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 168. The college or faculty of advocates … may be called the seminary of Scotch lawyers.
1810. Bentham, Packing (1821), 48. The duty of an advocate is to take fees, and in return for those fees to display to the utmost advantage whatsoever falshoods the solicitor has put into his brief. Ibid. (1825), Reward, 93. At Rome, if certain travellers may be believed, it is the custom when a saint is about to be canonized, to allow an advocate, who in familiar language is called the advocate of the devil, to plead against his admission.
1826. Disraeli, Viv. Grey, I. viii. 18. To succeed as an advocate, I must be a great lawyer: and, to be a great lawyer, I must give up my chance of being a great man.
1862. Ld. Brougham, Brit. Constitn., xvii. 281. A Scotch Judge making a vacancy on that Bench removed the Lord Advocate.
1876. Bancroft, Hist. U.S., VI. l. 373. The advocate-general Segur having drawn up the most minatory indictment.
2. fig. and gen. One who pleads, intercedes or speaks for, or in behalf of, another; a pleader, intercessor, defender.
1340. Ayenb., 127. Bidde we mid al oure herte þane holy gost … þat he by oure auocat.
c. 1405. Lay Folks Mass-Bk. B. Pr., II. 66. Pray specialy til oure lady saynt mary that sche becum oure auoket.
1460. in Pol. Rel. & Love Poems, 148. I loke for loue of man my broþir, I am his avoket on euery wise.
a. 1535. W. de Worde, Communycacyon, B iij. Mercy was thyn aduocat chefe.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., I. iii. 87. An earnest aduocate to plead for him.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olbion, A ij. I have (but as an Advocat for the muse) argued.
1735. Pope, Eth. Ep., II. 30. The Frail one’s advocate, the Weak one’s friend.
1774. Mrs. Chapone, Improv. Mind, II. 8. He will find an advocate in every human heart.
1828. Macaulay, Hallam’s Const. Hist., 40. The advocates of Charles have very dexterously contrived to conceal … the real nature of this transaction.
b. Specially, applied to Christ as the Intercessor for sinners.
1382. Wyclif, 1 John ii. 1. We han auoket anentis the fadir, Ihesu Crist just [1388 an aduocat].
1509. Fisher, Wks., 282. Jesus is … a suffycyent vocate for vs.
1611. Bible, 1 John ii. 1. We haue an Aduocate with the Father, Iesus Christ the righteous.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 33. Let me Interpret for him, me his advocate And propitiation.
a. 1788. C. Wesley, Hymn ‘Light of those.’ Come, thou Advocate and Saviour, Manifest thy wondrous grace.
1826. Binney, Hymn ‘Eternal Light.’ A Holy Spirit’s energies, An Advocate with God.
3. One who defends, maintains, publicly recommends or raises his voice in behalf of a proposal or tenet. Const. of (for ? obs.).
c. 1735. Pope, Hor. Ep., II. i. 34. Advocates for folly dead and gone.
1756. Lucas, Ess. on Waters, III. 318. The advocates for brimstone will here triumph.
1792. Anecd. W. Pitt, I. xx. 332. Truth will continue to have her worshippers; and it may be presumed that they will … survive the advocates of Falsehood.
1810. Coleridge, Friend (1865), 128. The most respectable English advocate for the theory.
1858. Max Müller, Chips (1880), II. xxvii. 349. The priests were … the strongest advocates of the system of caste.
1860. Maury, Phys. Geog. Sea, ii. § 92. The advocates of the trade-wind theory.
† 4. The secular defender or ‘patron’ of a church or religious house; an ADVOWEE. Obs.
1387. Trevisa, Higden, Rolls Ser. I. 283. Þe Romayns chees hym afterwardes for to be Seynt Petres aduokett [trans. 1432–50 aduocate].
1751. Chambers, Cycl., Advocate is more particularly used, in church-history, for a person appointed to defend the rights and revenues of a church, or religious house.
