/tʃerˈkare il ˈpelo nelˈlwɔvo/ lit. ‘to look for the hair in the egg’
Italian idiom, everyday. To argue about tiny details that don’t matter.
Draft Not yet checked by a native Italian speaker.
How do people use Cercare il pelo nell’uovo
?
Everyday Italian for someone who picks holes in everything, from a colleague’s report to the way you load the dishwasher. It’s mildly critical but not rude, so it works at work and at home. Conjugate “cercare” as usual: “cerca sempre il pelo nell’uovo”, “non cercare il pelo nell’uovo”, “stai cercando il pelo nell’uovo”.
Cercare il pelo nell’uovo
in real sentences
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Lui cerca il pelo nell’uovo.
He’s splitting hairs.
Tatoeba, sentence by Guybrush88, CC BY 2.0 FR
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Non cercare il pelo nell’uovo.
Don’t split hairs.
Tatoeba, sentence by Guybrush88, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Cercare il pelo nell’uovo
come from?
Treccani lists it among the proverbial phrases under “pelo” and describes the person who does it as pedantic and impossible to please, someone who criticizes everything down to the smallest flaw. The picture is a person peering into an egg for a hair, about the last place one could turn up. English Wiktionary compares French “chercher le poil dans l’œuf”, the same image, but neither source gives a date or a first use.
Mistakes learners make with Cercare il pelo nell’uovo
Using “capello” instead of “pelo”. Learners mix it up with its sister idiom “spaccare il capello in quattro”, but the egg always gets a “pelo” (a body or animal hair), so “cercare il capello nell’uovo” is wrong.
Other Italian idioms like Cercare il pelo nell’uovo
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