finicky
adjective

- (about someone) wanting things correct in every detail; who is very complicated and difficult to deal with

Macmillan Dictionary

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WORD ORIGIN

“Finicky” is related to the verb finick and the noun and adjective finicking and the adjective finical. The apparent oldest of the set is finical, dating from the late 1500s; "finicky" doesn’t hit the scene until the early 1800s.

Where did all this come from? A common but uncertain supposition is that it’s from fine plus ical as in cynical and ironical.

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FINICKY FELINE GETS THE PASTA

Humphrey is a real-life Garfield, who will only eat lasagne. The finicky cat’s love affair with this popular pasta dish began after sneaking a bite of his owner’s leftovers.

“For a week he wouldn’t eat anything I gave him. But a few days later I cooked some more lasagne and he came running”, said 30-year-old Sophia Atrill, from north London.

She has now entered the stubborn seven-year-old cat for the Boomerang TV Pet Personality Awards.

“I have no children - he is my baby and if it’s lasagne that he wants, then it’s lasagne he will get”, she said.

(Adapted from the London Daily Mail)

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SYNONYMS

- exacting, especially about details
- not easy to please or satisfy

by the book (the numbers), cantankerous, clocklike, crossing the t’s, difficult to please, dotting the i’s, driven, duteous, eager, eager beaver, early, earnest, easily disgusted, error-free, errorless, fastidious, fault-finding, fiddly, FINICKY, from A to Z, fuddy-duddy, fussbudget, fussbudgety, fussy, grinding, hair-splitting, hard-to-please, hypercritical, impossible to please, inch-perfect, leaving no stone unturned, literalist, literalistic, meticulous, microscopic, minding p’s and q’s, niggling, niggly, niminy-piminy, nit-picking, nit-picky, old-maidish, on the dot, over-exacting, over-fastidious, over-particular, over-rigorous, over-strict, overcautious, overcritical, painstaking, pedantic, perfectionist, pernickety, persnickety, pettifogging, picky, picky-picky, quibbling, schoolmarmish, scrupulous, scrutinising, stickler, sticklerish, stickling, thoroughgoing, ultra-careful, ultra-fine, ultraprecise, word-perfect

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SMUGGLE OWAD into an English conversation, say something like:

“Sorry to be FINICKY, but this text has to be absolutely word perfect before we post it online.”

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THANKS to Maciek for suggesting today’s word!

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HERZLICHEN DANK to all readers helping me keep OWAD alive with single or monthly donations at:

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and,

Paul Smith, IBAN: DE75 7316 0000 0002 5477 40