nugaen.
/ˈnjuːdʒiː/, /ˈnjuːɡiː/, U.S. /ˈn(j)udʒi/, /ˈn(j)uɡi/ Now rare.
With plural agreement. Trifles. Esp. in nugae difficiles n. (also difficiles nugae) Philosophy difficult but trivial matters over which a disproportionate amount of time may be taken.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > [noun] > knowledge, study, or subject > difficult but trifling matters
nugae difficiles1662
the mind > attention and judgement > importance > unimportance > [noun] > that which is unimportant > of little importance or trivial > collectively
fiddle-faddle1577
fry1587
small beer1620
pigs and whistles1681
trantlesa1689
rattletrap1742
fewtrils1763
fritter1803
nugae1822
small beer1844
trick1877
trivia1902
1662 E. Stillingfleet Origines Sacræ ii. ii. §6 Certainly this kind of Learning deserves the highest form among the difficiles Nugæ.
1674 M. Hale (title) Difficiles nugae; or observations touching the Torricellian Experiment, and the various solutions of the same, and especially the weight and elasticity of the air.
1710 G. Berkeley Treat. Princ. Human Knowl. §119 170 We may perhaps..look on all Inquiries about Numbers, only as so many difficiles nugæ, so far as they are not subservient to practise.
?1752 B. Franklin Let. in Papers (1961) IV. 394 I said,..that they would not spend their time in things that were merely difficiles nugae, incapable of any useful application.
1822 J. M. Good Study Med. IV. 23 In all these attempts..there is a great deal that cannot but be regarded as philosophical nugae.
1890 W. James Princ. Psychol. II. xxviii. 662 Such painstaking attempts..to prove all necessary judgments to be analytic..seem accordingly but nugae difficiles, and little better than wastes of ink and paper.
1916 Mind 25 188 The speculative parts of mathematics, which are concerned with difficiles nugae, are cut away by the New Principle.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1662