persnickety

== English == === Etymology === From Scots persnickety, whence also pernickety. More at pernickety. === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /pɚˈsnɪ.kɪ.ti/ === Adjective === persnickety (comparative more persnickety, superlative most persnickety) US standard form of pernickety. 1914 July 3, William H. Bowers, “The Use of ‘Tempest.’”, letter to the editor, in The Dial: A Semi-Monthly Journal of Literary Criticism, Discussion, and Information, The Henry O. Shepard Co., volume LVII, page 47: I have just read the article in your issue for May 16 on dialectic English. The word tempest recalls the surprise I felt at the beginning of three years' residence on Cape Cod to hear the word used commonly as an exact synonym for thunderstorm. Persnickety I have been accustomed to use in the sense attached to perjinkety, that is, over-fastidious. I do not know how the word was acquired or how common its use is. ==== Synonyms ==== see pernickety, see also Thesaurus:fastidious ==== Derived terms ==== persnicketily persnicketiness === References ===