quibble
pronunciation
How to pronounce quibble in British English:
UK [ˈkwɪbl]
How to pronounce quibble in American English:
US [ˈkwɪbəl]
-
- Noun:
- an evasion of the point of an argument by raising irrelevant distinctions or objections
-
- Verb:
- evade the truth of a point or question by raising irrelevant objections
- argue over petty things
Word Origin
- quibble
- quibble: [17] Quibble probably originated as a rather ponderous learned joke-word. It is derived from an earlier and now obsolete quib ‘pun’, which appears to have been based on quibus, the dative and ablative plural of Latin quī ‘who, what’. The notion is that since quibus made frequent appearances in legal documents written in Latin, it became associated with pettifogging points of law.
- quibble (n.)
- 1610s, "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. Meaning "equivocation, evasion of the point" is attested from 1660s.
- quibble (v.)
- "equivocate, evade the point, turn from the point in question or the plain truth," 1650s, from quibble (n.). Earlier "to pun" (1620s). Related: Quibbled; quibbling.
Example
- 1. One can quibble about the promise .
- 2. Without wishing to quibble , that is a bit of an over-estimate .
- 3. There 's plenty for the politicians to quibble over , but that 's the underlying dynamic .
- 4. There are several other reasons americans can quibble over the use of gdp per head , especially with reference to japan .
- 5. You could always quibble with any study that estimates the effectiveness of one policy versus another . You can also argue circumstances change and different policies become appropriate .