“Don’t split hairs!” の意味は

BBCのコメディ『Only Fools And Horses』を題材にして、ETC英会話のコリン先生のレッスンを受けています。

Don’t split hairs! 直訳すると「髪の毛を裂くな」となりますが。本当はどんな意味なのでしょうか。コリン先生に質問をしてみました。

Is it ours Del? Of course it’s ours. Legally Del? Don’t split hairs with me, Rodney. Come on

Don’t split hairs means, like don’t go into too much details about it.”It’s ours”, that is good enough. That’s what he was saying here. So split hairs mean, go into, find out exactly everything, the nitty-gritty. You want to know everything. So we say, looking for the nitty-gritty.Don’t go into the nitty-gritty. You want to know the in’ s and out’s of it all, another very poplar used idiomatic expression. the in’s and out’s mean, know everything about it. Outside of the object and inside of the object. In this case, he said “it’s ours”. “It’s ours, legally?” “Don’t split hairs!” Maybe it’s legal, maybe it isn’t. That’s why he is saying.

■出演
・ETC英会話のコリン先生

■聞き手
・青樹洋文

◆使用楽曲 (BGM)
“Toxic Rainfall” of some1else from ccMixter