fastidious
very hard to please; extremely attentive to detail
Roots
- -ous / -ious: full of or marked by a quality
- fastid: disgust, squeamishness, or hard-to-please care
Other words with the fastid root
- fastidiousness: extreme detail-care or hard-to-please precision
Fastidious care begins with a flinch: the person is so sensitive to flaws that small defects feel hard to tolerate.
Her fastidious editing caught every dull verb, extra comma, and lazy phrase.
Fastidious is stronger than careful. A careful person notices details; a fastidious person almost recoils from imperfection.
That older disgust/squeamishness flavor helps the word stick. Fastidious taste, editing, dress, or hygiene is not casual neatness. It is precision with a small shudder behind it.