hairsplitting
1
8.2
- noun
- /ˈhɛrˌsplɪtɪŋ/
:
distinción excesiva
- Allow, nevertheless, a small dissent which may seem like hairsplitting, offered only to suggest an adjustment to a fine piece in case it is revised for further use.
- legal hairsplitting
Examples
-
I must suffer for the fact that nature and fate have made me Christian in my external and internal organization, in my body, my posture, my pronunciation, my nose, my soul, my spirit, while this person attempts unsuccessfully to disguise the sign of Cain of an inferior race through hairsplitting and pseudo-Idealism!
Academic text (1990) -
VM: To distinguish "can understand" from "will understand given infinite time" is academic hairsplitting.
Blog text (24) -
"Your Honor, this is legal hairsplitting.
Fiction book (2002) -
That is another example of extreme hairsplitting and an extrapolation of a "State" concept that is not warranted by the text, i.e., pilpul.
Blog text (29) -
This is far from a hairsplitting distinction; a central commitment of the criminal law is that offenses must be statutorily defined and proven beyond a reasonable doubt before a defendant can be punished for them.
Academic text (2017) -
Argumentation is highly legalistic, prone to hairsplitting, and leads to the placing of cumbersome and, to foreign eyes, bizarre restrictions on the SDF.
Academic text (2003) -
"Endless hairsplitting of policy minutiae or ideological presumptions to finally get to an 'AHA!' moment where you reveal some failure of Libertarian RightThink?
Blog text (10) -
There's nothing anti-Semitic about calling extreme hairsplitting or extrapolation of contentious and doubtful concepts from texts "pilpul."
Blog text (29) -
The debate became tedious due to constant hairsplitting over minor points that distracted from the main issue.
-
In negotiations, his hairsplitting made it difficult to reach a consensus on the contract terms.
Synonyms
2
8.4
Paying too much attention to small rules and details to show you know a lot
1
7.7
Making very small, unimportant differences in an argument or discussion
1
3.0
A small disagreement about something unimportant
Arguing about small differences in meaning instead of the main point
A way of arguing that focuses on small unimportant differences and confuses the issue
Arguing about small unimportant details that wastes time and annoys people
Arguing about small unimportant details to avoid making a decision
Being too focused on small rules and details in a way that annoys people
Antonyms
How Pedantic
1
8.2
11
6.8
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Hairsplitting comes from the image of trying to split a single hair, a very small and exact thing. So the noun means the act of making very small or unimportant differences in an argument.