Pettifog (verb)
pet-ee-fog
to bicker or quibble over trifles or unimportant matters.
First recorded in 1605–15; back formation from pettifogger “ambulance chaser,” equivalent to petty “inferior, secondary” + fogger “shyster,” from Middle Low German voger or Middle Dutch voeger “an arranger, a fixer”; akin to Old English gefōg “a joining, a joint”; petty
Example sentences
“With all the pettifogging, it was hard to keep the problem in perspective.”
