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hairsplitter

noun

Etymology

From hair + splitter.

  1. derived from *(s)pley-✻
  2. derived from *splītaną✻
  3. derived from *splītan✻ — “to split”
  4. derived from *splittjan✻
  5. borrowed from splitten
  6. borrowed from splitten
  7. formed as splitter — “split + -er”
  8. compounded as hairsplitter — “hair + splitter”

Definitions

  1. A stickler person who makes extremely, possibly excessively, fine distinctions (who would…

    A stickler person who makes extremely, possibly excessively, fine distinctions (who would separate something as fine as a hair into two pieces and distinguish them).

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for hairsplitter. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA