punctilious

adj

Etymology: Etymology tree English punctilio Proto-Indo-European *h₃ed- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *h₃édosder.? Proto-Italic *-ōtsos or *-otsos Latin -ōsus Old French -usbor. Middle English -ous English -ous English punctilious From punctilio (“fine point in exactness of conduct”) + -ous.

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.”

   “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.

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

   “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.”