quisquilian

[prettygoodword]

quisquilian (kwiz-KWIL-ee-an) - adj., worthless, trivial, consisting of rubbish.


The latter being the root sense: from Latin quisquiliae, trash, rubbish, borrowed in I suspect the 17th century (possibly by Sir Thomas Urquhart -- I mean, he would). As one blog post helpfully points out, this is useful for covert insults -- "My, what a quisquilian prom dress you have, dear."

---L.

Comments

[spacedlaw.livejournal.com]

Another gem uncovered, nothing quisquilian about that word.