barrator means one who is guilty of barratry, vexing others with frequent and often groundless lawsuits; a brangler and pettifogger. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
barrator is pronounced /ˈbæɹətɚ/.
Why “barrator” is a great word
A person who habitually and vexatiously incites or pursues groundless lawsuits. The word descends from Middle English baratour, from Old French barateor (“deceiver”), from barater (“to deceive, cheat”). Unlike a litigant, who is a party to a suit, or an advocate, who argues a principled cause, the barrator is an agent of bad faith, weaponizing the machinery of justice for profit. He is the clatter of a gavel on a hollow claim, the instigator of a feud over a forged deed, and the whisper that transforms a petty slight into a writ—a corrosive proof that the law, in being open to all, is vulnerable to those for whom process itself is the profitable injury.
Etymology
From Middle English baratour, from Old French barateor (“deceiver”), from Old French barater, bareter (“to deceive, cheat, barter”). Compare barter (intransitive verb).
noun
- One who is guilty of barratry, vexing others with frequent and often groundless lawsuits; a brangler and pettifogger.“But by Hawk. P. C. bk. 1, c. 21, if such suits are merely groundless, and brought only with a design to oppress the defendants, such a man may as properly be called a barrator as if he had stirred up others to bring them.”
- One who abuses their office by dealing fraudulently.; One who buys or sells political or ecclesiastic offices.
- One who abuses their office by dealing fraudulently.; A judge who accepts bribes.
- One who abuses their office by dealing fraudulently.; A ship's master who commits gross fraud or barratry.
- A quarrelsome person, one who fights, a bully.“I care not though men call me impudent, / Smooth-tongu'd, audacious, petulant, abhominable, / Forger of vvords and lie, contentious Barretour, / Old, vvinding, bragging, teſty, crafty fox.”