Word of the Day for Tuesday, February 28, 2012
pettifog \PET-ee-fog\, verb:
1. To bicker or quibble over trifles or unimportant matters.
2. To carry on a petty, shifty, or unethical law business.
3. To practice chicanery of any sort.
Marius, my boy, you are a baron, you are rich, don't pettifog, I beg of you.
-- Victor Hugo, "Les Misérables'
Naturally, the wonderful tubers Brillat-Savarin dug up and dished out lacked the penultimate refinements of washing and cooking, but it would've been gauche to pettifog.
-- Elizabeth Gundy, "The Disappearance of Gregory Pluckrose"
Pettifog comes from the Middle Dutch word voeger meaning one who arranges things and the word petty meaning insignificant.
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