One striking early instance of 'legal eagle' appears in a review of an American musical play called Wildflower, in the Sydney Morning Herald (December 1, 1924):Ī newcomer, Charles Zoll, appeared as Gaston La Roche, a bumptious upstart in a loud check suit, a ' legal eagle' with a gun in his hand, whose ingenious plans to irritate Nina were foiled by his own jealous quarrels with Lucrezia. Google's Ngram chart for 'legal beagle' (blue line) versus 'legal eagle' (red line) for the period 1920–2005 looks like this: But the dictionary doesn't take a position on whether 'legal beagle' grew out of 'legal eagle.' Wentworth & Flexner puts both terms in the 'Intentional and jive rhyming terms' subcategory of 'Rhyming Terms and Rhyming Slang'-and this certainly seems reasonable. An extremely capable devoted, or cunning lawyer. Harold Wentworth & Stuart Flexner, Dictionary of American Slang, first edition (1960), attaches slightly different meanings to the two terms: Lighter doesn't suggest that legal beagle arose in response to legal eagle, as an even more jocular term, but I think that it probably did. Lighter, Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang (1997) gives first citations of 1939 for 'legal eagle' and 1949 for 'legal beagle.' Both terms have the same definition:Īn attorney, esp. Did another famous detective beagle, or hound, inspire the coinage of legal beagle?

What are the connotations of these terms? Can they be used negatively or are they usually positive?ģ. Is the beagle variant a play on words, a mondegreen or an eggcorn?Ģ.

Was there, perhaps, another famous detective beagle?Ĭertainly, the two terms seem to be interchangeable and are both examples of rhyming reduplication, more common examples are: teeny-weeny, razzle-dazzle, mumbo jumbo, and wishy-washy.ġ.

For instance, the beagle first takes on his attorney alter ego in the strip from January 12, 1972, part of a storyline in which Peppermint Patty tries to eliminate the school's dresscode policy.īut I was wrong, Wiktionary lists a quotation containing the term legal beagle as far back as December 24, 1921.įor our part we are quite willing to pass the immortelles to Outerbridge Horsey, Banker Stillman's legal beagle. I thought Snoopy, Charlie Brown's pet dog in Peanuts, might be the inspiration for said term, Wiki saysĪlthough Snoopy's legal cases are mostly imaginary, if a Peanuts character needs an attorney, Snoopy will be that character's attorney in real life. “A lawyer, esp a clever and aggressive one” The Dictionary of American Slang defines the canine version simply as Merriam-Webster dates the first written instance of legal eagle in 1869 but fails to list the beagle variant among its pages. ‘The legal beagles would have to iron out the details.’ ‘The entire affair will drag on for months and it could be that the legal eagles will be the only ones to do well out of it.’ Oxford Dictionaries provide a glut of examples but little in the way of history. Someone who is a stickler for the rules, and who thrives on the minutiae of the law. Both legal beagle and legal eagle are informal terms for a smart, eagle-eyed attorney or lawyer.

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