wrangle

A long, hard, intense argument, especially over an issue with lots of details, is a wrangle. Politicians and lawyers frequently engage in wrangles. Usually it doesn't come to blows.

Wrangle in its current meaning comes from the nineteenth century American term wrangling, the art of herding cattle, probably with the idea in mind that rounding up all those tiresome details is a bit like rounding up all those tiresome cattle; they tend to go flying off in all directions. From wrangler in the cowboy sense we get Wrangler jeans, though not all wranglers wear Wranglers of course. They usually wear suits.