punctilious

English

WOTD – 20 July 2012, 20 July 2013, 20 July 2014, 20 July 2015

Etymology

Etymology tree

English punctilio

Proto-Indo-European *h₃ed-

Proto-Indo-European *-os

Proto-Indo-European *h₃édosder.?

Proto-Italic *-ō̆tsos?

Old Latin -ōssus

Latin -ōsus

Old French -usbor.

Middle English -ous

English -ous

English punctilious

From punctilio (“fine point in exactness of conduct”) + -ous.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pʌŋkˈtɪli.əs/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

Adjective

punctilious (comparative more punctilious, superlative most punctilious)

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

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:meticulous

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

   • 2001 May 12, Robert Potts, “The poet at play”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian‎^[1], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 15 October 2026:

     He was punctilious. According to those who worked with him, even his paperwork was the best they'd seen.

2. Precise or scrupulous; finicky or nitpicky.

   Synonyms: finicky, nitpicky, precise; see also Thesaurus:meticulous

   • 2009, Ronnie Cann, Ruth Kempson, Eleni Gregoromichelaki, Semantics: an introduction to meaning in language:

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

   • 2017, Kory Stamper, Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries, Pantheon Books, page 103:

     Every editor at Merriam-Webster deals with the Black Books at many points during their tenure. The Black Books are the in-house set of rules for writing a dictionary (commonly called a style guide) as conceived and written in punctilious detail by the former editor in chief Philip Babcock Gove, for the creation of Webster’s Third.

Derived terms

• overpunctilious
• punctiliously
• punctiliousness
• unpunctilious

Related terms

• point
• punctuate
• punctual
• punctuality
• punctuation

Translations

strictly attentive to detail

• Armenian: բծախնդիր (hy) (bcaxndir), (informal) քթի մազ (hy) (kʻtʻi maz)
• Bulgarian: стриктно спазващ (striktno spazvašt)
• Dutch: minutieus (nl), punctueel (nl)
• Finnish: pilkuntarkka (fi)
• French: pointilleux (fr)
• German: pedantisch (de), minutiös (de), korrekt (de), förmlich (de), peinlich genau, überkorrekt
• Greek: σχολαστικός (el) (scholastikós)
• Polish: drobiazgowy (pl), formalistyczny (pl), pedantyczny (pl), skrupulatny (pl)
• Russian: щепети́льный (ru) (ščepetílʹnyj), церемо́нный (ru) (ceremónnyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: pongail
• Spanish: puntilloso (es)
• Turkish: aşırı titiz (literally “overcorrect”)

precise

• Bulgarian: педантичен (bg) (pedantičen)
• Dutch: precies (nl), pietepeuterig (nl)
• Finnish: pilkuntarkka (fi)
• German: pedantisch (de), genau (de), präzise (de)
• Polish: drobiazgowy (pl), formalistyczny (pl), pedantyczny (pl), skrupulatny (pl)
• Russian: педанти́чный (ru) (pedantíčnyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: pongail
• Spanish: puntilloso (es)

Further reading

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “punctilious”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.