In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may in addition have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.
Some people think the word “general” used in that way entitles the official to the honorific “general”, but this is strictly only appropriate for military generals. The word “general” in “attorney general” is an adjective (unlike the military term). The plural of “attorney general” is “attorneys general”. The history of the term dates back to Norman England when many of the French legal terms were imported into English common law. In French, the adjective often comes after the noun and so Attorney General meant General Attorney.
– the chief law officer of a country or state
– the person who holds the position of secretary of the Justice
Department; “Edmund Randolph was the first Attorney
General, appointed by President Washington”