captious

Etymology

From Middle English capcious, from Middle French captieux, or its source, Latin captiōsus, from captiō.

adj

1. (obsolete) That captures; especially, (of an argument, words etc.) designed to capture or entrap in misleading arguments; sophistical.
   […]I know I loue in vaine, ſtriue againſt hope : / Yet in this captious, and intemible Siue / I ſtill poure in the waters of my loue / And lacke not to looſe ſtill[…] 1605, William Shakespeare, All's Well that Ends Well, act I, scene i, page 234
   A captious queſtion, Sir, and your’s is one, / Deſerves an anſwer ſimilar, or none. 1786, William Cowper, “Tirocinium: Or, A Review of Schools”, in Poems, 2nd edition, volume II, London: J. Johnson, page 338
   Were you aware that in your discourse last Sunday you attributed the captious Problem of the Sadducees to the Pharisees, as a proof of the obscure and sensual doctrines of the latter? March 24, 1815, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “To William Lisle Bowles”, in Collected Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Oxford, published 2000, page 558
2. Having a disposition to find fault unreasonably or to raise petty objections; cavilling, nitpicky.
   But Peter Petrovich did not accept this retort. On the contrary, he became all the more captious and irritable, as though he were just hitting his stride. 1968, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, translated by Sidney Monas, Crime and Punishment, published 1866
   The "Our Bold" column, nitpicking at errors in other periodicals, can look merely captious, and its critics often seem to be wildly and collectively wrong-headed. 24 Jan 2009, Anne Karpf, The Guardian