pernickety

Etymology

From Scots pernickety, persnickety, apparently formed from per- plus nick (“a notch, mark, cutting retort”) plus -et (“-ed”) plus -y — equivalent to English per- plus nick plus -ety, literally “marked up”, later “overly precise”. The variant persnickety, with an s, may come from Scots sneck (“a cut, notch”) replacing nick. Compare also the Scots variants pernicked, pernicket, pirnicky, and pernicky.