Pettifogging - Word of the Day - The Chief Storyteller

Pettifogging is today’s Word of the Day. It’s a perfect old-fashioned synonym for quibble or squabble.

WORD	TYPE	DEFINITION	PRONUNCIATION
Pettifogging	Noun, Verb	Placing undue emphasis on petty details. To argue over unimportant matters.	PED-ee-fawg-ging

SOURCE	The earliest evidence for using the word pettifog is from the mid 1500’s. In its earliest English uses, “pettifogger” was two separate words: “pettie fogger.” “Pettie” was a variant spelling of “petty.”

EXAMPLES	The Economist described his viewpoint succinctly: “He paints stewards of fair play — regulators and boards — as pettifogging enemies of progress,” wrote its pseudonymous business columnist “Schumpeter.” Source: Los Angeles Times, May 18, 2022 “By conforming to the Laws of this Universe; instead of trying by pettifogging to evade and profitably contradict them.” Source: History of Friedrich II of Prussia, Volume III, Thomas Carlyle “The pettifogging objections to some social plan had very little chance of survival owing to the dynamic power of the reformers.” Source: A Preface to Politics, Walter Lippmann

Information Sources: Combination of Dictionary.com; Dictionary of American Regional English; Merriam-Webster Dictionary; Collins English Dictionary; Oxford English Dictionary; Vocabulary.com; A Word a Day; The Etyman™; The Word Finder (J.I. Rodale)
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Pettifogging – Word of the Day