pernickety
Requiring attention to minor details.
Definitions
UK
#1·Apr 27, 2026UK
Requiring attention to minor details.
‘You must forgive me,’ he said. ‘I take a ridiculous pleasure in what I eat and drink. It comes partly from being a bachelor, but mostly from a habit of taking a lot of trouble over details. It’s very pernickety and old-maidish really, b…
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UK
#2·Apr 27, 2026UK
(chiefly, UK, Irish, Commonwealth) Fussy; paying undue attention to minor details; fastidious.
‘You must forgive me,’ he said. ‘I take a ridiculous pleasure in what I eat and drink. It comes partly from being a bachelor, but mostly from a habit of taking a lot of trouble over details. It’s very pernickety and old-maidish really, b…
Origin: From , persnickety, apparently from + nick + + ; equivalent to English ; , then . The alternative form persnickety, with s, may be due to substitution of for nick. Compare also variants pernicked, pernicket, pirnicky, and pernicky. Origin information sourced from Wiktionary contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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