punctilious

English

WOTD – 20 July 2012    

Etymology

From punctilio +‎ -ous

Pronunciation

• (GenAm) IPA: /pʌŋkˈtɪliəs/

Adjective

punctilious (comparative more punctilious, superlative most punctilious)

1. Strictly attentive to detail; meticulous or fastidious, particularly to codes or conventions.

   With a punctilious slap of the gloves, the duel was now inevitable.

2. Precise or scrupulous; finicky or nitpicky.
   • 2009, Ronnie Cann, Ruth Kempson and Eleni Gregoromichelaki, Semantics: an introduction to meaning in language

     Of course, humans do not treat time in such a punctilious fashion.

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:meticulous

Derived terms

• punctiliously
• punctiliousness

Related terms

• point
• punctuate
• punctual
• punctuality
• punctuation

Translations

strictly attentive to detail

• Dutch: minutieus (nl)
• Finnish: pilkuntarkka (fi)
• French: pointilleux (fr) m

• Russian: щепетильный (ru) (ščepetílʹnyj) , церемонный (ru) (ceremónnyj) 
• Scottish Gaelic: pongail (gd)

precise

• Dutch: precies (nl), pietepeuterig (nl)
• Finnish: pilkuntarkka (fi)

• Russian: педантичный (ru) (pedantíčnyj) 
• Scottish Gaelic: pongail (gd)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Spanish: puntilloso

External links

• punctilious in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911