I'm sure there are countless words that fall into this (unfortunate) category, and most don't ever get to come out to see the light of day. However, a few years ago, 'persnickety' started getting a lot of attention from me when I noticed a friend of mine using the word 'persnippety' (which isn't, actually, a word). 'Persnickety' quickly started working its way into my daily speech around this friend, in the hopes that it would rub off. I can't remember if it did or not.
Because it was such a rub for my grammar-patrol-loving mind, you can only begin to imagine the immense panic that I experienced two days ago, when, in the course of reading some bit of fiction, I ran across the word 'pernickety'. I froze. All those moments of frustration with my friend who says 'persnippety' came rushing back as I realized my worst fear might come true...that I had been wrong about the word myself all this time. THE HORROR!
Needless to say, I jumped up and went straight to the dictionary and looked it up. Turns out, the definitions cited on dictionary.com are as follows:
per·snick·e·ty (adj)
- Overparticular about trivial details; fastidious. Snobbish; pretentious.
- Requiring strict attention to detail; demanding: a persnickety job.
persnippety: No entry found.
My first thought: Ah...what relief!! Despite the fact that I know I've looked up 'persnickety' and 'persnippety' before, it has been quite a while, and confirmation is such a good feeling.
My second thought: As much of a fan as I am of people that have good diction, when two words are so similar as 'persnickety' and 'pernickety', shouldn't someone quite farther up the grammar patrol chain than me have the authority to just DELETE the superfluous word, and go with the one we're all used to - and comfortable with: 'persnickety'?
5 comments:
Through most of my years of study of Ancient Greek, I had the same professor and a number of returning students (small class, you got to know everybody pretty well). One of the students was a philosophy major, and in particular, a logician. I can't tell you the number of times my diminutive Argentenian professor would admonish "Ah, Mark, languages are not logical." when the logician ran up against things like this.
It's good that you have a solid understanding of that word, Dovie. You live in what is perhaps the most persnickety nation on the planet. I have no doubt that you have a justified opportunity to use the word every day. If you visit France, be sure to learn the appropriate use of the word ... well, I'm not going to say it here.
Dovie, quit being so persnippity about the use of the word pernickety. :-)
The paragraph that ends with "THE HORROR!" caused a literal LOL.
Then as I read the actualy definition... the irony caused more laughter (but it was not OL).
My first thought: I think you're being a little overparticular about trivial details and maybe fastidious, too.
and maybe I'm being a little snobbish and pretentious (altough with my rather demanding job, I get that way), but metaphorically speaking, is diction really a monkey? I mean when I go to the zoo and see the primate section, I don't think much about the monkeys as being very artistic linguistically, what with all their swinging around, eating bananas, and throwing stuff at us.
Maybe diction is more like a squirrel, hiding away little nuts to surprise us with inthe dead of winter when we think we'll starve for lack of intelligent conversation or whatnot.
and then maybe it's just me who's cracked...
monkeys...
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