Fastidious

Definitions: Fastidious

Fastidious

Adjective

1. Giving and careful attention to detail; hard to please; excessively concerned with cleanliness; "a fastidious and incisive intellect"; "fastidious about personal cleanliness".

2. (microbiology) having complicated nutritional requirements; especially growing only in special artificial cultures; "fastidious microorganisms"; "certain highly specialized xerophytes are extremely exacting in their requirements".

Date "fastidious" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. (references)

Etymology: Fastidious \Fas*tid"i*ous\, adjective. [Latin expression fastidiosus disdainful, from fastidium loathing, aversion, perhaps from fastus arrogance (of uncertain origin) taedium loathing. Compare to Tedious, Fash.]. (Websters 1913)

Synonym: Fastidious

Synonym: exacting (adj). (additional references)

Antonym: unfastidious (adj). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Disapprobation	Satirical, sarcastic, sardonic, cynical, dry, sharp, cutting, biting, severe, withering, trenchant, hard upon; censorious, critical, captious, carping, hypercritical; fastidious; sparing of praise, grudging praise.
Fastidiousness	Verb: be fastidious; Adjective: have a sweet tooth.
	Adjective: fastidious, nice, delicate, delicat, finical, finicky, demanding, meticulous, exacting, strict, anal, difficult, dainty, lickerish, squeamish, thin-skinned; squeasy, queasy; hard to please, difficult to please; querulous, particular, straitlaced, scrupulous; censorious; hypercritical; overcritical.
Sensibility	Adjective: sensible, sensitive; impressible, impressionable; susceptive, susceptible; alive to, impassionable, gushing; warm hearted, tender hearted, soft hearted; tender as a chicken; soft, sentimental, romantic; enthusiastic, highflying, spirited, mettlesome, vivacious, lively, expressive, mobile, tremblingly alive; excitable; oversensitive, without skin, thin-skinned; fastidious.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Fastidious

English words defined with "fastidious": Daintify, dainty ♦ fastidiously ♦ nice ♦ old maid, old-maidish, old-womanish, overnice ♦ painstakingly, preciosity, prissy ♦ selective, squeamish, Squesy ♦ unfastidious. (references)

Specialty definitions using "fastidious": Hunger seasons Food ♦ RIBROASTER. (references)

Etymologies containing "fastidious": Squesy. (references)

Domain	Title
Books	Unusual Microorganisms: Gram-Negative Fastidious Species (Microbiology Series, V. 10) (reference) The Fastidious Feline: How to Prevent and Treat Litter Box Problems ("How to" booklets from Dog's Best Friend) (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	Brucella spp. Colony Characteristics: A. Fastidious, usually not visible at 24h. B. Grows slowly on most standard laboratory media (e.g. sheep blood, chocolate and trypticase soy agars). Pinpoint, smooth, entire translucent, non-hemolytic at 48h.Credit: CDC.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Author	Quotation
Jean De La Fontaine	The fastidious are unfortunate; nothing satisfies them.
Thomas Moore	A pretty wife is something for the fastidious vanity of a rouT to retire upon.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Title	Author	Quote
Emma	Austen, Jane	And he was really a very pleasing young man, a young man whom any woman not fastidious might like.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Health		Progress in anesthesia has allowed more time for the surgeon to be fastidious about hemostasis, and new surgical techniques have improved the surgeon's ability to control bleeding. (references)
Lexicography	Devil's Dictionary	RIBROASTER, n. Censorious language by oneself concerning another. The word is of classical refinement, and is even said to have been used in a fable by Georgius Coadjutor, one of the most fastidious writers of the fifteenth century -- commonly, indeed, regarded as the founder of the Fastidiotic School.
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

"Fastidious" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 99.14% of the time. "Fastidious" is used about 116 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Adjective (general or positive)	99.14%	115	30,138
Noun (proper)	0.86%	1	339,140
Total	100.00%	116	N/A

Expressions using "fastidious": be fastidious ♦ fastidious person. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "fastidious"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		qibar (prim), nazeli (finicking, finicky, fussy), i stërholluar (fine, luxuriant, sophisticated, wiredrawn), i rafinuar (dainty, formal, polished, refined). (various references)

Arabic		‏نيف صعب إرضاؤه, ‏شديد الحساسية (exquisite, highly strung, oversensitive, squeamish, touchy, toughy). (various references)

Bulgarian		чувствителен (apprehensive, feeling, hair-trigger, high strung, impressionable, nice, sensible, sensitive, sentient, susceptible, susceptive, tender, thin-skinned), капризен (capricious, erratic, faddish, fanciful, fantastic, fantastical, fickle, fractious, freakish, freaky, fretful, ill, inconstant, maggoty, particular, petulant, skittish, tricksy, vagarious, vagrant, wayward, whimsical), взискателен (choosey, exact, exacting, exigent, nice, rigorous, strict), злояд, префинен (precious, refined), претенциозен (bumptious, choosy, elaborate, fanciful, gingerly, high-toned, overblown, pretentious, showy, squeamish, studied, swanky), придирчив (captious, carping, choosey, dainty, delicate, exacting, exceptive, finical, finicking, finicky, finikin, nice, particular, pernickety, queasy, squeamish), изтънчен (cool, dainty, delicate, discriminating, fine, polished, polite, refined, subtle, urbane), деликатен (considerate, delicate, fine, fragile, nice, pernickety, prickly, slender, slippery, slippy, soft, tender, thoughtful, ticklish). (various references)

Chinese		吹毛求疵 (Captious). (various references)

Czech		vybíravý (choosey, choosy, finical, finicky, finnic, fussy, nice, particular), mlsný (finicky, gourmand, lickerish). (various references)

Finnish		turhantarkka (fussy, overparticular, pedantic, too particular), nirso (choosey). (various references)

French		maniaque (faddy, fading), méticuleux. (various references)

German		verwöhnt (daintily, discriminating, fastidiously, regales, spoiled, spoilt), anspruchsvoll (advanced, ambitious, arrogant, challenging, demanding, discriminating, exacting, exactingly, highbrow, nice, pretentious, selective, sophisticated, up-market). (various references)

Greek		σχολαστικόσ (bookish, donnish, finicky, pedagogue, pedant, pedantic, pettifogging, punctilious, scholastic), ιδιότροποσ (capricious, cranky, crotchety, faddy, flighty, maggoty, pernickety, quirky, wanton, wayward, whimsical), μικρολόγοσ (palterer, trifler), δυσευχαρίστητοσ. (various references)

Hebrew		איסט� יסי (delicate, sensitive, squeamish), בחרן (chooser), ברר� י (choosy, eclectic, selective). (various references)

Hungarian		kényes (finical, finicking, finicky, missy, namby-pamby, pernickety, prickly, queasy, sensitive, subtle, tender, testy, ticklish), finnyás (choosey, choosy, dainty, pernickety, precious, queasy, sophisticated, squeamish). (various references)

Italian		fastidioso (annoying, bothering, bothersome, inconvenient, maddening, nagging, pesky, tiresome, troublesome), meticoloso (captious, carping, correct, finickly, fussy, meticulous, nagging, particular, pedantic, punctilious, scrupulous), difficile (arduous, awkward, catchy, difficult, difficult graft by a flap method, difficult to please, hard, inconvenient, problem, rough, severe, stiff, strained, stressful, tight, tough, tricky, trying, uneasy). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		選り好み (being particular about), 気難しい (crusty, hard to please, moody), 小難しい (tortuous, troublesome), えり好み (being particular about, hey!, type of traditional vocal music, welcome). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		きむずかしい (crusty, hard to please, moody), きむづかしい (crusty, hard to please, moody), �"むずかしい (tortuous, troublesome), より�"のみ (being particular about), えり�"のみ (being particular about). (various references)

Korean		까다로운 (tricky). (various references)

Manx		dendeaysagh (dainty, delicate, effeminate, effeminate man, prim, small eater). (various references)

Norwegian		kresen (fussy). (various references)

Pig Latin		astidiousfay

Portuguese		fastidioso (annoying, boring, disgusting, drab, dull, irksome, monotonous, pickup, stodgy, tedious, tiresome, wearisome), melindroso (doll-like, hug, kid glove, Kittle, pernickety, ticklish, umbrageous, well-made), maior crescimento, esquisito (antic, bizarre, freak, fur, odd, peculiar, queer, rum, strange, weird), enfadonho (arid, barren, boring, bothersome, difficult, disagreeable, drab, dull, humdrum, insipid, lengthy, monotonous, muzzy, pesky, preachy, prolix, prosy, repetitious, soporific, stodgy, tedious, tiresome, untoward, vapid, vexing, wearisome, weary). (various references)

Romanian		pretenţios (affected, cavilling, choosey, exacting, exigent, finical, important, inkhorn, particular, pretentious, prim, puffy, sophomoric), nãzuros (dainty, humoursome, picky, prim, self willed), mofturos (dainty, demure, finical, finicking, fractious, Froward, humoursome, naughty, nice, particular, peevish, perverse, picky, qualmish, squeamish), greu de mulţumit (captious, difficult, nice, particular, pernickety, qualmish, squeamish), gingaş (dainty, delicate, delicately, fine, fragile, frail, gentle, mellow, nice, pernickety, sightly, squeamish, sweet, tender), exigent (exacting, over-particular), dificil (abstract, awkward, captious, choosy, cross-grained, dainty, delicate, difficult, finical, hard, ill, intractable, involved, nice, parlous, qualmish, scabrous, spiny, stiff, tender, thorny, ticklish, tough, troublesome, unyielding), cusurgiu (fault finder, finical, nice, overnice), boieros (arrogant, haughty, high handed), belaliu (difficult, sensitive, touchy). (various references)

Russian		брезгливый, привередливый (choosy, finical, pernickety, queasy, squeamish). (various references)

Scottish		beadaidh (capricious, impudent). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		probirljiv (choosey, choosy, particular). (various references)

Spanish		fastidioso (annoying, bothering, bothersome, irksome, irritating, pestiferous, plaguey, plaguy, troublesome, trying, wearisome, weary), esquilimoso, delicado (daintier, dainty, dead, delicate, exquisite, finicky, frail, fussy, hard to please, hard to speak, hypersensitive, kid glove, killed, particular, pleasant, polite, refined, sharp, squeamish, subtile, subtle, tenderly, too sensitive, very sensitive), de rapidez. (various references)

Swedish		kräsen (choosey, dainty, particular, selective). (various references)

Thai		พิถีพิถัน. (various references)

Turkish		zor beğenen (choosy, difficult, exacting, finical, finicking, finicky, fussy, queasy), titiz (careful, choosy, cleanly, critical, dainty, demanding, difficult, exact, exacting, exigent, finical, finicking, finicky, fussy, hypercritical, jealous, jealous of, meticulous, niggling, niminy-piminy, particular, peevish, pernickety, picky, rigorous, scrupulous, squeamish, touchy), müşkülpesent (choosy, demanding, difficult, exacting, exigent, particular, picky). (various references)

Turkmen		зьmhцrek (discernible, legible). (various references)

Ukranian		розбірливий (choosy, coherent, decipherable, legible), вередливий (naughty, perverse, queasy, squeamish), витончений (airy, attic, bijou, choice, curious, dainty, delicate, elegant, fine, lepid, nice, rarefied, refined, slender, slinky, subtile, subtle, super, twee, zing). (various references)

Vietnamese		khó chiều; cảnh vẻ, kén cá chọn canh, dễ chán, chóng chán khó tính. (various references)

Welsh		dicra (slow, squeamish), cysetlyd. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	delicata, delicatae, delicate, delicati, delicatum, delicatus, fastidiosus, morosus. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "fastidious": fastidiously, fastidiousness, fastidiousnesses. (additional references)
	Words ending with "fastidious": hyperfastidious, overfastidious, ultrafastidious, unfastidious. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Fastidious" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: astidious, faastidious, fantidious, fasidious, fasitious, fastedious, fastediuos, fasticious, fastideous, fastidiosus, fastidioys, fastidiuos, fastidous, fastiduous, fastitdious, fastitious, fastivious, fatidious, festidious, fistidious, foetidus. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "fastidious" (pronounced fasti"dēus)
5	-i" d ē u s	hideous, insidious, invidious.
4	-d ē u s	commodious, melodious, odious, radius, studious, tedious.
3	-ē u s	acrimonious, alias, amphibious, aqueous, bilious, coleus, contemporaneous, copious, courteous, curious, deleterious, delirious, denarius, devious, dubious, envious, erroneous, extraneous, felonious, furious, gaseous, glorious, gregarious, harmonious, hilarious, homogeneous, igneous, ignominious, illustrious, imperious, impervious, industrious, inglorious, injurious, instantaneous, laborious, lascivious, lugubrious, luxurious, meritorious, miscellaneous, mysterious, nefarious, notorious, nucleus, oblivious, obsequious, obvious, pancreas, penurious, percutaneous, precarious, previous, punctilious, sanctimonious, Sartorius, serious, simultaneous, spontaneous, spurious, supercilious, unceremonious, various, vicarious, victorious, vitreous.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-d-f-i-i-o-s-s-t-u"
	-3 letters: studios.
	-4 letters: audios, audits, fatsos, foists, idiots, odists, sadist, softas, studio, tsadis.
	-5 letters: adios, adits, adust, audio, audit, autos, datos, dauts, ditas, doats, doits, duits, dusts, fados, fasts, fatso, fiats, fidos, fists, foist, fossa, idiot, iotas, oasis, oasts, odist, oidia, ossia, ostia, ousts, sadis, saids, satis, sifts, situs, sodas, sofas, softa, softs, staid.
	Words containing the letters "a-d-f-i-i-o-s-s-t-u"
	+2 letters: fastidiously, unfastidious.
	+4 letters: fastidiousness, overfastidious.
	+5 letters: hyperfastidious, subinfeudations, ultrafastidious.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.