fieldmethods.net recommends this OneLook Reverse Dictionary.
There are two types of reverse dictionary. One is a list of words starting with the ending. I have one of those in book form (it starts with a and baa, and ends with abuzz and fuzz), but is there none online?
The other is one where you enter the definition and the dictionary gives you the word(s). OneLook is the latter kind. The Reader’s Digest sells one of these, ISBN: 089577951X: quite useful; and there’s also an Oxford Reverse Dictionary, ISBN: 0192801139, which I don’t know.
I entered ‘lawyers’ and got the following list (I was less happy with the results for ‘person who does oral translation’):
1. attorney 2. lawyerly 3. lawyering 4. barristers 5. solicitor
6. barrister 7. counselor 8. pettifogger 9. bar 10. shyster
11. counsel 12. leguleian 13. ambulance chaser 14. prosecutor 15. counsellor
16. public defender 17. conveyancer 18. prosecuting attorney 19. prosecuting officer 20. client 21. paralegal 22. mouthpiece 23. shingle 24. consultation 25. abraham lincoln 26. lincoln 27. advocate 28. counselor-at-law 29. defense attorney 30. defense lawyer 31. divorce lawyer 32. defense
33. prosecution 34. attorney-at-law 35. breviate 36. trial attorney
37. trial lawyer 38. lawyerbush 39. retainer 40. scrivener
41. hays 42. chamber 43. squire 44. retain 45. honest 46. disbar
47. briefless 48. legal cap 49. cant 50. belli 51. birkenhead 52. clarence darrow
53. cohn 54. cohns 55. demurrer 56. jurist 57. lawer 58. nomiatrist 59. pleader
60. defence 61. law firm 62. privilege 63. retainers 64. criminal lawyer
65. jeofail 66. loophole 67. shapiro 68. templar 69. attorney-client privilege
70. attorney-client relation 71. defend 72. devil 73. feme 74. lawyer-client relation 75. practice 76. sergeant 77. writer 78. legal assistant 79. preaudience
80. unless 81. alben barkley 82. alben william barkley 83. arthur garfield hays
84. barkley 85. clarence seward darrow 86. darrow 87. disbarment
88. francis scott key 89. hoover 90. j. edgar hoover 91. john edgar hoover
92. mouth 93. verdict 94. canter & siegel 95. fee splitting 96. boswell
97. bryan 98. dulles 99. pettifog 100. pro bono
Not wishing to indulge in 49. cant, I see the Reader’s Digest dict. must be of Am. origin from the spellings: 28. counselor 32. defense and 21. paralegal – maybe now a concept in the UK alongside legal executives and secretaries.
Whoever 52. Clarence Darrow was, I’m bemused that 40. the obscure scrivener is in there right down on the list, but not the commoner term of notary who, professionally and historically, should really be right up there at the top of the list with solicitors, barristers and conveyancers.
This was confusing. I looked these terms up online in the OneLook dictionary, not in the Reader’s Digest, which is not so weird in its results. At Lawyer, it has lists of Latin expressions in a sidebar.
There is a German equivalent by the ADAC, but both may be out of print.
Clarence Darrow was famous, but of course not being American I couldn’t tell you much about him offhand. Here is a site: http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/DARROW.HTM
I am in the process of changing my Internet provider and this comment may be lost for posterity. Perhaps I will look up a legal term in the Reader’s Digest and ADAC and post that.