over-refinementn.
/ˌəʊvərᵻˈfʌɪnm(ə)nt/, U.S. /ˈˌoʊvə(r)rəˈfaɪnm(ə)nt/, /ˈˌoʊvə(r)riˈfaɪnm(ə)nt/ Excessive refinement; an instance of this.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > judgement or decision > discernment, discrimination > [noun] > delicacy of > often excessive
subtilty1569
niceness1580
curiosity1605
over-refinement1711
alembication1824
over-subtlety1833
over-refining1834
supersubtlety1834
1711 Ld. Shaftesbury Characteristicks III. Misc. v. i. 261 Over-refinement of Art and Policy..[is] naturally incident to the experienc'd and thorow Politician.
1753 S. Richardson Hist. Sir Charles Grandison V. xviii. 115 Shall I, my child, save you from being run away with by these tyrannous over-refinements?
1830 C. M. Sedgwick Clarence II. vi. 97 He afforded a sort of safety valve for the over refinement and irascibility of others.
1885 Cent. Mag. May 39/2 An epoch that gave its workers little time for over-refinement.
1931 Science 29 May 577/1 When results are easily evaluated, over-refinement in an experiment may be a waste of time.
1998 B. B. Schieffelin Lang. Ideol. ii. 64 Linguists sometimes singled out honorific language in Africa and Asia for ridicule or criticism as the signs of what they took to be..decadent overrefinement.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2004; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1711