• pernickety •
Pronunciation: pêr-nik-i-ti • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: (Slang) 1. Fussy or exacting about details, fastidious. 2. (UK) Snobbish, supercilious, pretentious.
Notes: No, it isn't a typo; the original word was pernickety and contained no S. The S crept in later in the US but is spreading to other dialects of English around the world. The noun referring to the quality of a pernickety person is pernicketiness and the seldom used adverb is pernicketily. Feel free to include or omit the S.
In Play: If you are pernickety about your speech, you will probably want to use the S-less version of today's word: "Never help Gilda Lilly set the table. She is so pernickety about where every piece goes, she will drive you insane." If you prefer to talk like everyone else, you can cave in and include the S: "June McBride is so persnickety about her clothes she changes two or three times a day."
Word History: No one knows where today's Good Word comes from. It is clear that pernickety, first published in 1802, did precede persnickety, first published in 1892. This means that we are free to speculate until someone unearths real evidence on the origins of these words. It may be a whimsical creation that caught our imaginations and stuck, like stick-to-itiveness. It might have originally been an accidental blend, a speech error in which we search for a word in memory, come up with two having the same or complementary meanings, and "blend" them together in speaking. That is the origin of smog (from smoke and fog). Pernickety could have been a three-way blend of particular, niggling, and finicky. However, keep in mind that this is blind speculation. (We don't have to be pernickety to thank Dr. Goodword's friend Kathleen of Norway for suggesting today's Good Word.)
PERNICKETY
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PERNICKETY
• The Good Dr. Goodword
per(s)nickety
Well 'snick' is just distasteful to me. Much more than 'nick', so I see why the americanism 'persnickety' took hold. Never heard pernickety used. Seriously, never. sounds British though, wink!
Re: per(s)nickety
Really? I'm curious: what association causes your distaste? I like the sound of this syllable; it reminds me of my brother learning to make snickerdoodles.Well 'snick' is just distasteful to me.
Then there's snickersnee, dangerous, yet sounding not so much, to my ears.
There is rock to the left, and rock to the right, and low lean thorn between,
And ye may hear a breech-bolt snick where never a man is seen.
orWhen click! the string the snick did draw;
An' jee! the door gaed to the wa';
An' by my ingle-lowe I saw,
Now bleezin bright,
A tight, outlandish hizzie, braw,
Come full in sight.
Or you can range a little for this swear from Twelfth Night:I ken he weel a snick can draw,
When simple bodies let him
-gailrWe did keep time, sir, in our catches. Sneck up!"
Snick
Gailr, you've half convinced me. It's definitely better than 'click' in Kipling's usage, and any word Rabbie felt fitting is a good word in itself. Snickerdoodles I've never had, but haggis ... mmmm. I'll snick it up any chance I get. And next Burns night I'll sneak the word into the conversation more than I should.
Snicker, persnickety and the lowly Snickers Bar are all I have in the distasteful category. OK, you win. Snickersnack notwithstanding.
-melissa
Snicker, persnickety and the lowly Snickers Bar are all I have in the distasteful category. OK, you win. Snickersnack notwithstanding.
-melissa
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