Four days late on this one, but languagehat has a great post on the origin of the term “pettifogger”. Most interesting is the following quote from the OED:
In German fugger, fucker, focker (see Grimm) has had the senses ‘monopolist, engrosser’, ‘usurer’, ‘man of great wealth’, ‘great merchant’, and, in certain dialects (doubtless originally through ironical use), ‘huckster, pedlar.’
That is marvellous. It’s well worth reading the full post.
Continuing on a similar tack, some fortuitous Wikistumbling has led me to my new favourite sentence: “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.” There’s also “James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher,” but that ain’t nothing but cheap trickery.
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