WordWealth: minutiae

mi·nu·ti·a , n., pl. -ti·ae .

Usually, minutiae. precise details; small or trifling matters: the minutiae of his craft. [1745–55; < L minūtia smallness, equiv. to minūt(us) MINUTE2 + -ia -IA]

—mi·nuti·al, adj. (Random House Webster's Unabridged). Look at Thesaurus

George W. Bush found his voice in Tuesday night's debate. Al Gore, unable to draw the governor into a mire of policy minutiae, was left to look on in evident frustration as Bush rode up to claim the philosophic high ground. In the third and last of their face-offs, Bush did more than find smart ways to respond to Gore's litany of policy innuendo. He did more than poke gentle fun at the way a Beltway bore badgered him about the status of bills in committee and the prongs of Supreme Court tests. —— Michael Knox Beran in The Trumpets Sound, Straight talk rides again; National Review; Oct, 18, 2000

Junger is not a moralizing journalist. His stories in Fire, many of which have been previously published, tend to end as they begin—with a discovered detail or an irresistible fact, rather than an epiphany or a petition. The accretion of minutiae is his greatest talent: he lays down the mundane beside the lyrical—patiently, without bravado. —— Beth Kephart in Books and Critics, Fire by Sebastian Junger; Atlantic Monthly, Oct 2001

Arafat's plans for war can be foiled by U.S. foreign policy. President Bush seems to have learned some of the right lessons from the mistakes of the Clinton era. All of Clinton's vaunted involvement in the minutiae of the "peace process" helped embolden Arafat, enticing him to grow more brazen in his demands. Clinton's desperate desire for a Nobel Peace Prize led inexorably to the current Middle East crisis. ——Seth Gitell, political writer for the Boston Phoenix, in The Next Middle East Policy, Hands-off, but Stern; National Review, Feb 7, 2001

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