different between fastidious vs painstaking

English

Etymology

From Latin fast?di?sus (“passive: that feels disgust, disdainful, scornful, fastidious; active: that causes disgust, disgusting, loathsome”), from fast?dium (“a loathing, aversion, disgust, niceness of taste, daintiness, etc.”), perhaps for *fastutidium, from fastus (“disdain, haughtiness, arrogance, disgust”) + taedium (“disgust”). Cf. French fastidieux.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fæ?st?di.?s/, /f??st?di.?s/

Adjective

fastidious (comparative more fastidious, superlative most fastidious)

1. Excessively particular, demanding, or fussy about details, especially about tidiness and cleanliness.

   Synonyms: exacting, fussy, meticulous, niggly, pernickety; see also Thesaurus:fastidious
2. Overly concerned about tidiness and cleanliness.
3. Difficult to please; quick to find fault.

Derived terms

• fastidiously
• fastidiousness

Translations

See also

• finicky

Further reading

• fastidious in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• fastidious in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• fastidious at OneLook Dictionary Search

English

Alternative forms

• (archaic) pains-taking

Etymology

From pains +? taking.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?pe?n?ste?k??/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /?pe?nz?te?k??/

Adjective

painstaking (comparative more painstaking, superlative most painstaking)

1. Carefully attentive to details; diligent in performing a process or procedure.
   • 1781, James Harris, Philological Inquiries

     All these painstaking men, considered together, may be said to have completed another species of criticism.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:industrious
• See also Thesaurus:meticulous

Derived terms

• painstakingly, painstakingness

Translations

Noun

painstaking (countable and uncountable, plural painstakings)

1. The application of careful and attentive effort.
   • c. 1836, Thomas Chalmers, Lectures on the Romans

     It is not by a flight of imagination that you gain the ascents of spiritual experience. It is by the toils and the watchings and the painstakings of a solid obedience.

   • 1852, Nathaniel Langdon Frothingham, Sermons in the Order of a Twelvemonth, "Sermon VI"

     Behold what an abundant recompense attends the small processes of the earth, with the help of a little warm air; and what wealthy returns the industry of the husbandman and the florist is preparing from a few seeds and painstakings.