What’s the Good Word?

So you’re probably not too excited about legal dictionaries. But the library’s gotten in the latest edition (the 3^rd) of Garner’s Dictionary of Legal Usage [Reference KF156 .G367 2011], and I’m just geeky enough to want to crack it open. Alongside run-of-the-mill terms like escheat, fee tail, or malice aforethought, I found a couple that made me go “hmmm…”:  gobbledygook, horseshed, judgitis, law reviewese, Lochnerize, and NIMBY. Then I came across the entry “Lawyers, Derogatory Names for” which includes a long list of “Names Actually Given to Lawyers.” Bitter insults like ack-ack, dump truck, flycatcher, fogger, mob mouthpiece, and waller were news to me. Of course, Garner’s isn’t the only game in town. The Gallagher Law Library has put together a nice dictionary guide that will lead to you to other U.S. legal dictionaries, topic-specific dictionaries, dictionaries aimed at non-lawyers, and bilingual and multilingual law dictionaries. Word.