It might be f. shy a. (sense 7, disreputable) + -ster ; but this sense of the adj. is app. not current in the U.S.]. . . 'A lawyer who practises in an unprofessional or tricky manner; especially, one who haunts the prisons and lower courts to prey on petty criminals; hence, any one who conducts his business in a tricky manner' (Funk's Stand. Dict. 1895). Also attrib. or adj. Orig. and chiefly U.S. slang . . . The Oxford English Dictionary (1989) 2shyster. An unscrupulous lawyer (note that the definition presumes the existence of scrupulous ones) . . . The term does not come from-as suggested in various dictionaries-the surname Scheuster, supposedly a lawyer noted for shyster-like practices; from the name of the Shakespearean char acter, Shylock; . . . or from any of the various meanings of shy (e.g., to be shy of money). Rather . . . shyster evolved from the underworld use of shiser, a worthless fellow, which derived in turn from the German scheisse, excrement, via scheisser, an incompetent person (specifically, one who cannot control his bodily functions) . . .

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