It's Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 5th.
Today's word is Meticulous, spelled M-E-T-I-C-U-L-O-U-S.
Meticulous is an adjective.
Something or someone described as meticulous shows extreme or excessive care in the consideration or treatment of details.
Here's the word used in a sentence from Forbes by Alicia Kelso.
In a press release, the company touts its meticulous approach to the sandwich's creation,
testing pickles with eight variations of thickness,
and more than ten bun recipes with six different bakeries.
we're afraid we have some strange etymological news.
The word meticulous comes from the Latin word for fearful meticulosus,
and ultimately from the Latin noun metus, meaning fear.
Although meticulous currently has no fearful meanings,
it was originally used as a synonym of frightened or timid.
This sense had fallen into disuse by 1700, and in the 1800s,
meticulous acquired a new meaning of overly and timidly careful,
possibly due to the influence of the French word meticuleux.
This meaning, in turn, led to the current one of painstakingly careful,
with no connotations of fear at all.
The newest use was controversial for a time, but it is now by far the most common meaning.
Even the most meticulous or persnickety, depending on your view,