pettifoggeryn.
/ˈpɛtɪˌfɒɡ(ə)ri/, U.S. /ˈˌpɛdiˈˌfɔɡəri/, /ˈˌpɛdiˈˌfɑɡəri/ Pettifogging practice; petty quibbling or (esp. legal) chicanery; an instance of this.Apparently rare in late 18th and early 19th centuries.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > legal profession > [noun] > practice of > inferior or rascally
pettifogging1580
chicanery1589
pettifoggery1659
chicane1681
shysterism1926
1659 J. Milton Considerations touching Hirelings 62 The last and lowest sort of thir arguments, that men purchas'd not thir tithe with thir land, and such like pettifoggerie, I omitt.
1693 T. Urquhart & P. A. Motteux tr. F. Rabelais 3rd Bk. Wks. xxxvi. 306 Under-hand tricky..Cavilling, Pettifoggery.
1719 G. French Answer to Scurrilous Libel 29 A Solicitor..foresaw the Management of their Cause wou'd by far exceed the Income of his Pettifoggery.
1855 Putnam's Monthly Mag. May 465/1 I tried the business of the law; but it was full of pettifoggery and drudgery.
1871 Athenæum 28 Jan. 83 Code-making..is going on with vigour in South America: and this is not surprising, for the Spaniards left them a legacy of miscellaneous pettifoggery.
1917 J. B. Cabell Cream of Jest III. v. 127 He..knew nothing of these people with any certainty. Pettifoggeries were too easily practical in speech or gesture, emotions were too often feigned.
1995 Economist 18 Feb. 55/2 Mr Byrd represents everything that is worst about the Senate: its invitations to procedural pettifoggery..its unbearable pomposity.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1659