persnickety / pernickety

[prettygoodword]

persnickety, also pernickety - adj., overly particular about trivial details, fastidious; snobbish or having the aloof attitude of a snob.


Persnickety is the later form (end of the 19th century) of the earlier pernickety (start of the 19th century), itself an extended form of the now obsolete pernicky. The last is of Scots origin, of unknown root, the middle is chiefly British usage, and the first the form that spread to America. Anything more would be persnickety.

---L.

Comments

[packbat.livejournal.com]

"Persnickety" is such a hilarious word. Much better than pernickety and pernicky, I think. (Probably because I've always heard it that way.)