pernickety
/pəˈnɪkɪti
/adjective British informal
1Placing too much emphasis on trivial or minor details; fussy: she’s very pernickety about her food...
- This is especially important for veggie or fussy diners who are pernickety about kitchen hygiene or the authenticity of their dishes.
- At last, those of us who are pernickety about our food can come out of the closet.
- This is partly due to the demands of an increasingly pernickety international audience ‘who get easily bored.’
Synonyms
fussy, difficult to please, difficult, finicky, over-fastidious, fastidious, over-particular, particular, faddish, finical, dainty, punctilious, hair-splitting, exacting, demanding, critical, overcritical;
Scottish & Irish pass-remarkable
informal nitpicking, choosy, picky
British informal faddy
North American informal persnickety
archaic nice, overnice
1.1Requiring a particularly precise or careful approach: the system does not encourage additional enquiries on detailed and pernickety points...
- He assessed his questions with pernickety deliberation before replying.
Origin
Early 19th century (originally Scots): of unknown origin.