Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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About this entry:
First published 1934 (SND Vol. I).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

ADVOCATE, †Advocat(t), n.

1. A barrister.Sc. 1710 Douglas's Virgil:
Subscribers, Library of the Faculty of Advocates.Sc. 1782 J. Sinclair Ob. Sc. Dial. 215:
Advocate, a counsellor or barrister.Sc. 1824 Scott Redgauntlet (1832) Conclusion:
Alan Fairford, Esq. Advocate, of Clinkdollar.Sc. 1890 Bell Dict. and Dig. of Law of Sc. 26:
In Scotland, the barristers practising before the supreme court are called advocates.

2. Special use: Lord Advocate, the chief law officer of the Crown in Scotland; formerly “King's Advocate.”Sc. 1701 Act of Parl. in Alexander's Abridgement of Acts Parl. Scot. (1841) 412:
Wherein if the King's Advocat failzie the dyet is to be deserted simpliciter.

3. A solicitor (Aberdeen: see second quot.).Bnff. 1721 in Trans. Bnff. Field Club (1892) 17:
Mr Patk. Duffe, Advocatt in Aberdeen, to be found att his loaging in the Castellgett.Abd. 1909 Green Encycl. of Law of Scot. 237–238:
In early times lawyers practising in the inferior Courts were frequently called advocates as well as procurators; but the only class of such practitioners still styling themselves advocates are the members of the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen.