Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BAR'RIS-TER, n. [from, bar.]

A counselor learned in the laws, qualified and admitted to plead at the bar, and to take upon him the defense of clients; answering to the advocate or licentiate of other countries. Anciently, barristers were called, in England, apprentices of the law. Outer barristers are pleaders without the bar, to distinguish them from inner barristers, benchers or readers, who have been some time admitted to plead within the bar, as the king's counsel are. – Johnson. Encyc.