niggling

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   minor yet persistent and irritating, repeatedly demanding attention

   A niggling doubt remained about whether the compromise could survive a vote.

2. 2
   adj

   petty, trivial, or excessively concerned with unimportant details

   The reformers opposed niggling regulations that restricted local initiative without serving a public purpose.

The adjective is the present participle of niggle. Niggle is recorded from the early seventeenth century and is apparently Scandinavian in origin, comparable to Norwegian nigla. Its earlier sense of doing something ineffectually developed into fussing over small details and causing slight persistent annoyance.

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