Thing Not To Be Today: pettifogging.

To be pettifogging is to quibble and fuss over unimportant details.

This word is usually applied to rules and regulations, but you can find pettifogging in other places, too.

The first three pages of instructions for any electrical appliance, for example, will basically boil down to a) HAVE A BIT OF COMMON SENSE and b) DO NOT INSERT YOURSELF INTO THIS PRODUCT.

Recipes are often pettifogging, too. Does it really matter in which direction you stir your polenta? No. Does it really matter where the salt you use was mined? No. Must you use one particular variety of chilli? No.

And don't talk to me about lawyers...

...except that, actually, as it happens I am:

Thing Not To Be Today: pettifogging. The original pettifoggers were lawyers who took on minor cases, especially those who sought to exploit loopholes to trick people. The petti- bit is to do with the Old French word petit, which means little, and the -fogging bit may be to do with the family of mediaeval German financiers called Fugger.