Link Centre Dictionary

pernickety

per·nic·kety

UK/pəˈnɪk.ɪ.ti/ US/pəˈnɪk.ə.ti/ uncommon uk

adjective

1.

characterized by excessive precision and attention to trivial details

  • “a persnickety job”
  • “a persnickety school teacher”
Synonyms
Similar

Origin

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.

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.