Why do we say that a graduating lawyer has “passed the bar”?
To control rowdiness, a wooden bar was built across early courtrooms to separate the judge, lawyers, and other principle players from the riffraff seated in the public area.
That bar, first used in the sixteenth century, also underlines the English word barrister or lawyer.
When someone has “passed the bar” or “has been called to the bar,” it means he or she is now allowed into the closed off area of the courtroom — according to “The Little Book of Answers.”