Philosopher bites back, cross about article (7)

I believe the answer is:

spinoza

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'philosopher' is the definition.
(Baruch Spinoza)

'bites back cross about article' is the wordplay.
'bites' becomes 'nips' (nip is a kind of bite).
'back' is a reversal indicator.
'cross about' becomes 'oz' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'article' becomes 'a' (the indefinite article in English).
'nips' in reverse letter order is 'spin'.
'spin'+'oz'+'a'='SPINOZA'

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(Other definitions for spinoza that I've seen before include "2 [PHILOSOPHER]" , "C17 Dutch philosopher" , "Dutch 17th-century philosopher" , "philosophical sort" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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