Word of the Day for Saturday March 6, 2004

pettifogger \PET-ee-fog-ur\, noun:

1. A petty, unscrupulous lawyer; a shyster.
2. A person who quibbles over trivia.

A more respectable-looking individual was never seen; he really looked what he was, a gentleman of the law -- there was nothing of the pettifogger about him.
--George Borrow, [1]Lavengro

The nitpickers, the whiners, the pettifoggers are everywhere.
--Bill Kraus, "Without Health Care Reform, Forget It," Capital Times, December 15, 1993

The case... opened my eyes to a problem that doesn't get half the ink lavished on unprincipled pettifoggers but is arguably twice as important.
--Max Boot, [2]Out of Order
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Pettifogger is probably from petty + obsolete fogger, "pettifogger."