subs. (old: now recognised).—An attorney of the baser sort: a sharking lawyer. Hence (generally) = one given to mean or underhand practices, and as verb. = to conduct business in a sharp or paltry way. Whence derivatives: PETTIFOGGERY, PETTIFOGGING, and PETTIFOGULISE.—GROSE (1785).
1576. A. FLEMING, A Panoplie of Epistles, 320. As for this PETTIE FOGGER, this false fellowe that is in no credite or countenance.
1577. W. HARRISON, The Description of England [Holinshed’s Chronicle (Shakespeare Society), i. 206]. Brokers betweene the PETTIE FOGGERS of the lawe, and the common people.
1588. M. KYFFIN, Terence’s Andria, iv. 5. I should be exclaimed vpon to bee a beggerly FOGGER, greedily hunting after heritage.
1604. MARSTON, The Malcontent, i. 6. Pas. You will know me again, Malvole. Mal. O ay, by that velvet. Pas. Ay, as a PETTIFOGGER by his buckram bag.
1610. NORDEN, Speculum Britanniæ; Cornwall (1728), 27. The baser sorte … verie litigious … whereof the FOGERS and Petie Lawiers … gett … great advauntage.
1613. WEBSTER, The Devil’s Law-case, iv. 1. Ari. Are you her knave. San. No, sir, I am a clerk Ari. You whoreson FOGGING rascal.
1617. MINSHEU, Guide into the Tongues. A PETTIE FOGGER, a sillie aduocate or lawyer, rather a trouble-Toune, having neither law nor conscience.
1618. ROWLEY and WEBSTER, A Cure for a Cuckold. Dramatis Personæ. PETTIFOG, an Attorney.
1709. WARD, The London Spy, i. 191. It may not be improper to conclude our Remarks of this Place with the Character of a PETTYFOGGER [then follows a description of upwards of two pages].
1749. SMOLLETT, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 138. A plodding PETTIFOGGER’S worthless brood might have gorged … on the love of a young nobleman … like yourself. Ibid., 193. He practised as an attorney at Valencia, and bore his faculties in all the infamy of PETTIFOGGING.
1837. DICKENS, Pickwick Papers, xxxi. ‘Ah, they’re smart fellows; very smart indeed’ … Messrs. Dodson and FOGG. ‘They are great scoundrels,’ said Mr. Pickwick.
1886. T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, i. 596. PETTIE FOGGER of the law; this strange word is the Dutch fokker, a monopolist.
