supersubtilizev.
/ˌsuːpəˈsʌtl̩ʌɪz/, /ˌsjuːpəˈsʌtl̩ʌɪz/, U.S. /ˌsupərˈsədlˌaɪz/ rare.
1. intransitive. To be oversubtle; to make oversubtle arguments.
ΚΠ
1868 J. A. Symonds Let. 22 Aug. (1967) I. 839 I hope we shall free ourselves of..the evil influence..he has of late exerted by..playing into the hands of conceited Academical pedantic priggish verbal supersubtilizing critics of the Cambridge–Coningtonian sort.
1902 Acad. & Lit. 12 Apr. 381/2 But, above all, the Professor (on the hypothesis of the American paper) has to supersubtilise for a degree; and his book stands on end with points unseized by the Germans.
2. transitive. To make oversubtle.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > understanding > reason, faculty of reasoning > misleading argument, sophistry > excessive subtlety, hair-splitting > render subtle [verb (transitive)]
subtilize1629
supersubtilize1911
1911 P. H. Blades Don Sagasto's Daughter xix. 326 He had disembodied his love, idealized and super-subtilized it, until it had become a possession far more precious than the passionate devotion which had come so near to his priestly undoing in those San Fernando days.
1958 Periodical Winter 287 If in England the words and music of the oratorios have been taken for granted, in Germany they have been over-scrutinized and supersubtilized.
1983 H. Blau in L. Hart Making Spectacle (1989) iv. 288 Becoming homosexual is part of the paraphilia of the postmodern, not only a new sexual politics but the reification of all politics, supersubtilized beyond the unnegotiable demands of the sixties..into a more persuasive rhetoric of unsublimated desire.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
v.1868