Post by t-bob on Mar 4, 2019 10:04:15 GMT -5
PETTIFOG
verb
1. to bicker or quibble over trifles or unimportant matters.
Quotes
Marius, my boy, you are a baron, you are rich, don't pettifog—I beg of you. -- Victor Hugo, Les Misérables, translated by Charles Edwin Wilbour, 1862 The way for the President to protect his prerogatives of office is not to pettifog about war powers but to go to the nation with his case. -- William Safire, "In Harm's Way," New York Times, May 25, 1987
Origin
The verb pettifog is a back formation from the noun pettifogger, originally “ambulance chaser, shyster, fixer.” Pettifogger is a compound of the adjective petty “of minor importance” and fogger “a middleman.” Fogger itself probably derives ultimately from Fugger, the name of a prominent family of German bankers of the 15th and 16th centuries. The family name became a common noun in German and Dutch, meaning “rich man, monopolist, usurer.” Pettifog entered English in the 17th century.
verb
1. to bicker or quibble over trifles or unimportant matters.
Quotes
Marius, my boy, you are a baron, you are rich, don't pettifog—I beg of you. -- Victor Hugo, Les Misérables, translated by Charles Edwin Wilbour, 1862 The way for the President to protect his prerogatives of office is not to pettifog about war powers but to go to the nation with his case. -- William Safire, "In Harm's Way," New York Times, May 25, 1987
Origin
The verb pettifog is a back formation from the noun pettifogger, originally “ambulance chaser, shyster, fixer.” Pettifogger is a compound of the adjective petty “of minor importance” and fogger “a middleman.” Fogger itself probably derives ultimately from Fugger, the name of a prominent family of German bankers of the 15th and 16th centuries. The family name became a common noun in German and Dutch, meaning “rich man, monopolist, usurer.” Pettifog entered English in the 17th century.
