hair-splitting

See also: hairsplitting

English

Etymology

• From the gerund form of split hairs

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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Noun

hair-splitting (countable and uncountable, plural hair-splittings)

1. (idiomatic) the act of finding exceedingly small differences which are probably neither important nor noticeable to most people.
   • 2006, Ian Aitken, in The Guardian, Richard Clements Obituary

     Dick's Tribune poked endless fun at the hair-splitting sectarianism of the various Trotskyist groups jostling on the fringes of the Labour party at that time.

Synonyms

• hair-splittery
• quibbling
• pilpul

Translations

the act of finding exceedingly small differences which are neither important nor prominent

• Finnish: hiusten halkominen (idiomatic)
• French: enculage de mouches (fr) m (slang), couper les cheveux en quatre (fr), pinaillage (fr) m, diptérosodomie (fr) f
• German: Haarspalterei (de) f
• Hungarian: szőrszálhasogatás (hu)
• Icelandic: hártogun f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: hårkløveri n

• Russian: дото́шность (ru) (dotóšnostʹ), зану́дство (ru) (zanúdstvo), въе́дливость (ru) (vʺjédlivostʹ)
• Swedish: hårklyveri (sv)