finicky

adj
/ˈfɪnɪki/

Etymology

From finick (“to work in a fastidious manner, wasting time over unnecessary details”) + -y. Compare finicking, finical, and dated finikin. Perhaps suggested by obsolete Dutch fijnkens (“accurately, neatly, prettily”) (modern Dutch fijntjes). Compare also Sicilian finicchiu.

  1. derived from fijntjes)

Definitions

  1. Fastidious and fussy

    Fastidious and fussy; difficult to please; exacting, especially about details.

    • My editor is very finicky about punctuation. Every dot and comma has to be just right.
    • She has a finicky baby that's hard to feed.
  2. Demanding

    Demanding; requiring above-normal care.

    • The lawnmower is a bit finicky in cold weather.
    • Instead of Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Cream Cheese Pie Crust from her addictingly finicky The Pie and Pastry Bible, I decided to make her Sour Cream Crust.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at finicky. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01finicky02exacting03precise04punctilious05nitpicky

A definitional loop anchored at finicky. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

5 hops · closes at finicky

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA