quibble
to argue about unimportant or irrelevant matters
TRANSLATION
kleinlich sein, sich herumstreiten, Haarspalterei betreiben to quibble about = sich herumstreiten wegen to quibble over sth. = sich wegen etw. herumstreiten
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
As Queen-Mother Cersei undertook her walk of shame through the streets of the capital at the end of the last season of “Game of Thrones”, she was surely plotting vengeance on those responsible for her humiliation. But she was probably also wondering exactly how she found herself in such an unfortunate situation. One reason unlikely to occur to the embattled queen is her financial naivety – namely, her failure to grasp the catastrophic nature of her fiscal policy for the Seven Kingdoms.
In a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, George R. R. Martin, the author of “A Song of Ice and Fire” (the series on which the HBO show is based), complained that fantasy authors often fail to engage with economics. “As much as I admire Tolkien, I do QUIBBLE with him… What was Aragorn’s tax policy?” Martin – unlike Cersei – has thought deeply about the economic systems underpinning his imagined world, so it’s worth taking a closer look at how they function. For Cersei’s predicament, it turns out, largely derives from her failure to understand the nature of international credit.
Game of Loans - Carolyne Larrington, The Economist
In a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, George R. R. Martin, the author of “A Song of Ice and Fire” (the series on which the HBO show is based), complained that fantasy authors often fail to engage with economics. “As much as I admire Tolkien, I do QUIBBLE with him… What was Aragorn’s tax policy?” Martin – unlike Cersei – has thought deeply about the economic systems underpinning his imagined world, so it’s worth taking a closer look at how they function. For Cersei’s predicament, it turns out, largely derives from her failure to understand the nature of international credit.
Game of Loans - Carolyne Larrington, The Economist
Did you
know?
quibble
verb
1 : to talk about unimportant things rather than the real point (stop quibbling about words and tell what happened)
2 : to find fault or argue over unimportant points (people ignored the main point of the speech and quibbled about its length)
A person who quibbles is a quibbler
---
ORIGIN
From 1610s, meaning "a pun, a play on words," probably a diminutive of obsolete quib "evasion of point at issue," based on an overuse of Latin quibus? in legal jargon, which supposedly gave it the association with trivial argument.
The meaning "equivocation, evasion of the point" is attested from 1660s.
---
SYNONYMS
argue, quarrel, squabble, bicker, wrangle, tiff, quibble, pettifog, niggle, nitpick
---
SMUGGLE WOAD INTO A CONVERSATIO TODAY
"They are constantly quibbling over insignificant details."
verb
1 : to talk about unimportant things rather than the real point (stop quibbling about words and tell what happened)
2 : to find fault or argue over unimportant points (people ignored the main point of the speech and quibbled about its length)
A person who quibbles is a quibbler
---
ORIGIN
From 1610s, meaning "a pun, a play on words," probably a diminutive of obsolete quib "evasion of point at issue," based on an overuse of Latin quibus? in legal jargon, which supposedly gave it the association with trivial argument.
The meaning "equivocation, evasion of the point" is attested from 1660s.
---
SYNONYMS
argue, quarrel, squabble, bicker, wrangle, tiff, quibble, pettifog, niggle, nitpick
---
SMUGGLE WOAD INTO A CONVERSATIO TODAY
"They are constantly quibbling over insignificant details."
