pernickety
Adjective Satellite
- characterized by excessive precision and attention to trivial details
Adj
- Fussy; paying undue attention to minor details; fastidious.
- Requiring attention to minor details.
Origin / Etymology
From Scots pernickety, persnickety, apparently from per- + nick (“a notch, mark, cutting retort”) + -et (“-ed”) + -y; equivalent to English per- + nick + -ety; literally, “marked up”, then “overly precise”. The alternative form persnickety, with s, may be due to substitution of Scots sneck (“a cut, notch”) for nick.
Compare also Scots variants pernicked, pernicket, pirnicky, and pernicky.
Synonyms
persnickety, anal-retentive, choosy, conscientious, dainty, exacting, fastidious, finical, finicking, finickity, finicky, finikin, fussy, hypercritical, lily-handed, meticulous, niggly, nit-picky, nitpickish, nitty, overcritical, overscrupulous, particular, pedantic, pernickety, picky
Scrabble Score: 21
pernickety: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordpernickety: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
pernickety: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary