Etymology

hair-splittingly

Today it means: In a hair-splitting way, characterized by exceedingly small differences, fine details, or edge cases of no seeming importance. Full definition →

Proto-Germanic *līką ← Proto-Indo-European *leyg- ← English hair-splitting
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The story

  1. Englishhair-splitting
  2. Proto-Indo-European*leyg-
  3. Proto-Germanic*līką
  4. English todayhair-splittingly

From hair-splitting + -ly.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.