What does "hairsplitting" mean?
Hairsplitting: Making excessively nice or trivial distinctions in reasoning; subtle. -- n. The act or practice of making trivial distinctions. The ancient hairsplitting technicalities of special pleading. Charles Sumner.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00