QUIBBLINGS

I just heard the word 'QUIBBLE' on the radio and was prompted to seek out the origin of this curious word. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins: 

 

"A quibble was originally a pun or play on words. It probably comes from Latin quibus, meaning ‘for which’ or ‘for whom’, a word that often appeared in legal documents and so was associated with subtle distinctions or verbal niceties. The idea of a pun led to that of basing an argument on some likeness or difference between words or their meanings, and from this arose the notion of a petty objection or a trivial point of criticism..."

 

I was also thinking, were I ever to have one, that QUIBBLES would make an excellent name for a cat!