hair-splitting

See also: hairsplitting

English

Etymology

From the gerund form of split hairs

Pronunciation

Audio (AU) (file)

Noun

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

(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.

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)
German: Haarspalterei (de) f
Hungarian: szőrszálhasogatás (hu)

Icelandic: hártogun f
Russian: дото́шность (ru) (dotóšnostʹ), зану́дство (ru) (zanúdstvo), въе́дливость (ru) (vʺjédlivostʹ)
Swedish: hårklyveri (sv)

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