fastidious
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /fæsˈtɪdi.əs/
ipa: /fəsˈtɪdi.əs/
rhymes: -ɪdiəs
Forms: form: more fastidious
form: most fastidious
Etymology: Borrowed from Latin fastīdiōsus (“passive: that feels disgust, disdainful, scornful, fastidious; active: that causes disgust, disgusting, loathsome”), from fastīdium (“a loathing, aversion, disgust, niceness of taste, daintiness, etc.”), perhaps for *fastutidium, from fastus (“disdain, haughtiness, arrogance, disgust”) + taedium (“disgust”). Cf. French fastidieux.
Senses: examples: text: He had at first tried to clean up as they ate, his fastidious nature kicking in, but Chris had told him to just stop, he was blocking the TV.
ref: 2003, Lynsay Sands, Single White Vampire:
text: As she cleaned the room daily, she knew it was against his fastidious nature to bring or have food in his room.
ref: 2004, Maria Osborne Perr, Ravished Wings:
text: His fastidious nature had been evident in his careful snipping of a customer's hair and now he guided his pencil with the same adroitness.
ref: 2008, Robert Fisher, Memory Road:
synonyms: exacting
fussy
meticulous
niggly
pernickety
glosses: Excessively particular, demanding, or fussy about details, especially about tidiness and cleanliness.
examples: text: "If you are fastidious, clean previously used pots inside and out; if not, merely clean the outside (unless you are battling a pest infestation; then the inside will need scrubbing as well)."
ref: 2010, Debra Lee Baldwin, Succulent Container Gardens: Design Eye-Catching Displays with 350 Easy-Care ...:
glosses: Overly concerned about tidiness and cleanliness.
examples: text: You're too fastidious, and too indolent, and too rich.
ref: 1908, Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady (The Novels and Tales of Henry James), New York edition, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC; republished as The Portrait of a Lady (EBook #283), United States: Project Gutenberg, 1 September 2001:
text: "It's burn[t], M'sieur," said Marie Louise, politely, but decidedly, to the utter confusion of Mr. Billy, who was as mortified as could be at the failure of his dinner to please his fastidious little visitor.
ref: 1897, Kate Chopin, The Lilies:
glosses: Difficult to please; quick to find fault.
examples: text: fastidious organism
text: fastidious species
topics: biology
microbiology
natural-sciences
glosses: Having precise requirements for nutrition and environment (chemical and physical); especially, being difficult to culture because of those requirements.
raw_tags: of a microorganism
Synonyms: word: anal-retentive
word: choosy
word: conscientious
word: dainty
word: exacting
word: fastidious
word: finical
word: finicking
word: finickity
word: finicky
word: finikin
word: fussy
word: hypercritical
word: lily-handed
word: meticulous
word: niggly
word: nitpickish
word: nit-picky
word: nitty
word: overcritical
word: overscrupulous
word: particular
word: pedantic
word: pernickety
word: persnickety
word: picky
Derived terms: fastidiously
fastidiousness
fastidious organism
hyperfastidious
nonfastidious
overfastidious
ultrafastidious
unfastidious
Related terms: word: finicky
word: methodical
word: prissy
word: pedant