On many of the finer points of this issue, though, SNL was wide of the mark.
Is there a finer prize for any writer of fiction than the ability to predict the future?
One person who holds a much higher opinion of Klitschko is somebody who learned his finer qualities while facing him in the ring.
And I have never known anyone with a finer sense of occasion than Seamus Heaney.
The more feminine, the more emotionally sensitive, the finer the fingerprint.
If he ever suspected any lack of finer fiber in Max, he put the thought away.
Mary Fitton was finer than his portraits; we want her soul, and do not get it even in Cleopatra.
The finer the instrument is to be, the more massive must be the foundation.
They were finer than any seen in the land, or ever heard of before.
Aye, but Bellarmine is the genteeler, and the finer man; yes, that he must be allowed.
late 13c., "pay as a ransom or penalty," from fine (n.). Inverted meaning "to punish by a fine" is from 1550s. Related: Fined; fining.
mid-13c., "unblemished, refined, pure; of superior quality," from Old French fin "perfected, of highest quality" (12c.), from Latin finis "end, limit" (see finish); hence "acme, peak, height," as in finis boni "the highest good."
In French, the main meaning remains "delicate, intricately skillful;" in English since mid-15c. fine is also a general expression of admiration or approval, the equivalent of French beau (cf. fine arts, 1767, translating French beaux-arts). Finer; finest. Fine print is from 1861 as "type small and close-set;" by 1934 as "qualifications and limitations of a deal."
c.1200, "termination," from Old French fin "end, limit, boundary; death; fee, payment, finance, money" (10c.), from Medieval Latin finis "a payment in settlement, fine or tax," from Latin finis "end" (see finish).
Modern meaning is via sense of "sum of money paid for exemption from punishment or to compensate for injury" (mid-14c., from the same sense in Anglo-French, late 13c.) and from phrases such as to make fine "make one's peace, settle a matter" (c.1300). Meaning "sum of money imposed as penalty for some offense" is first recorded 1520s.
