2020-11-05 ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด M – Meticulous & scrupulous

Revision M-Q

2020-11-05

ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด M – Meticulous & scrupulous

การใช้ภาษาอังกฤษ ที่ถือว่า ถูกต้องนี้ เป็นไปตามมาตรฐานการใช้ภาษา

การใช้คำอังกฤษ ไม่กำหนดมาตฐาน ถือตามส่วนใหญ่ที่ใช้แต่ละท้องถิ่น

ความหมาย อาจยืดหยุ่น ขึ้นอยู่กับ ตำแหน่ง/หน้าที่ ในประโยค

Dictionary.com

ออกเสียง Meticulous = ‘muh-TIK-yuh-luhs’

ออกเสียง scrupulous = ‘SKROO-pyuh-luhs’

Dictionary.com

SYNONYM STUDY FOR SCRUPULOUS

Scrupulous, punctilious imply abiding exactly by rules.

Scrupulous implies conscientious carefulness in attending to details: scrupulous attention to details.

Punctilious suggests strictness, preciseness, and rigidity,

especially in observance of social conventions.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Choose the Right Synonym for meticulous

CAREFUL, METICULOUS, SCRUPULOUS, PUNCTILIOUS

mean showing close attention to detail.

CAREFUL implies attentiveness and cautiousness in avoiding mistakes.

a careful worker

METICULOUS may imply either commendable extreme carefulness or a hampering finicky caution over small points. meticulous scholarship

SCRUPULOUS applies to what is proper or fitting or ethical.

scrupulous honesty

PUNCTILIOUS implies minute, even excessive attention to fine points.

punctilious observance of ritual

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Choose the Right Synonym for scrupulous

UPRIGHT, HONEST, JUST, CONSCIENTIOUS, SCRUPULOUS, HONORABLE

mean having or showing a strict regard for whatis morally right.

UPRIGHT implies a strict adherence to moral principles. a stern and upright minister

HONEST stresses adherence to such virtues as truthfulness, candor, or fairness.

known for being honest in business dealings

JUST stresses conscious choice and regular practice of what is right or equitable.

workers given just compensation

CONSCIENTIOUS and SCRUPULOUS

imply an active moral sense governing all one's actions and painstaking efforts to follow one's conscience.

conscientious in the completion of her assignments

scrupulous in carrying out the terms of the will

HONORABLE suggests a firm holding to codes of right behavior and the guidance of a high sense of honor and duty. a difficult but honorable decision

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

CAREFUL, METICULOUS, SCRUPULOUS, PUNCTILIOUS

mean showing close attention to detail.

CAREFUL implies attentiveness and cautiousness in avoiding mistakes.

a careful worker

METICULOUS may imply either commendable extreme carefulness or a hampering finicky cautionover small points. meticulous scholarship

SCRUPULOUS applies to what is proper or fitting or ethical. scrupulous honesty

PUNCTILIOUS implies minute, even excessive attention to fine points.

punctilious observance of ritual

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Scrupulous

Did You Know?

Scrupulous and its close relative "scruple" ("an ethical consideration")

come from the Latin noun scrupulus, the diminutive of "scrupus."

"Scrupus" refers to a sharp stone, so scrupulus means "small sharp stone."

"Scrupus" retained its literal meaning but eventually also came to be used with the metaphorical meaning "a source of anxiety or uneasiness," the way a sharp pebble in one's shoe would be a source of pain. When the adjective "scrupulous" entered the language in the 15th century, it meant "principled."

Now it also commonly means"painstaking" or "careful."

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Meticulous Has Fearful Roots

It may surprise you to learn that meticulous is derived from the Latin word for "fearful" - meticulosus - and ultimately comes from the Latin noun metus, meaning "fear." Although meticulous currently has no"fearful" meanings, it was originally used as a synonym of frightened and timid. This sense had fallen into disuse by 1700, and in the 19th century meticulous acquired a new sense of "overly and timidly careful" (probably influenced by the French word méticuleux). This in turn led to the current meaning of "painstakingly careful," with no connotations of fear at all. The newest use was controversial among some usage commentators at first, but it has since become by far the most common meaning and is no longer considered an error.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Word History

'Meticulous': Fear and Trepidation No Longer Required

Paying close attention to the details of its history

We're all pretty comfy with the word meticulous these days.

We throw around phrases such as "meticulous attention to detail" and "meticulous planning" and "meticulous care" like they're perfectly normal things.

And, in fact, they are.

But this was not always the case.

'Meticulous' was formed from Latin 'metus,' meaning "fear."

Consider this: if you'd tweeted out any of those phrases around the turn of the 20th century your feed may very well have blown up with condemnations echoing the words of none other than H. W. Fowler.

What's that? You don't know H. W. Fowler? Allow us to correct that. Henry Watson Fowler was an English lexicographer known especially for works he wrote about the English language in the early 20th century, including The King's English (1906) and A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926). The latter was especially influential.

It was also especially harsh on meticulous, a term to which he devoted more than two columns, beginning with a square placement of blame for its use:

What is the strange charm that makes this wicked word irresistible to the British journalist? does he like its length? does he pity its isolation (for it has no kindred in England)? can a Latin scholar like him not get meticulous out of his head? can so accomplished a Frenchman never be sure whether méticuleux or meticulous is the word he knows so well? or what is it? At any rate, he must have the word always with him, however unsuitable the surroundings.

Fowler was reacting to the seemingly sudden journalistic ubiquity of a word that had formerly languished in near-obsolescence. Oh, the word wasn't at its core objectionable. Meticulous was formed in a normal enough way from Latin metus, meaning "fear," and it had in the 16th and 17th centuries enjoyed some perfectly normal use as a synonym of fearful and timid, as any Latin-respecting descendant of metus might feel entitled to do. But speakers of the English language had pretty much retired the word by 1700, and that, it seemed, was that.

Until the 20th century rolled around and those blasted journalists determined to insert it into every blessed thing they wrote—and with the wrong meaning. Fowler speculated on where they got it, noting that they could not have gotten it by recalling the Latin of their school days, because it's not found in the texts they would have been reading. Furthermore, in the few instances in which the Latin word may be encountered, it carries a meaning of "frightened," and describessuch beings as "the timid hare, or the man who is gibbering with fear," and not the "overly careful" meaning so freely employed in the journalism of Fowler's day.

It was, it seems in the end, a trick of the French. In the 19th century, English literary critics were apparently convinced by the French word méticuleux

that meticulous would do well with a new meaning of "overly and timidly careful"—and this despite the fact that that particular job was already being done perfectly well by punctilious and scrupulous, thank you very much. (We're paraphrasing: Fowler did not offer even false appreciation.) The lit crit use then led (nefariously, we're sure) to the meaning of "painstakingly careful," with all connotations of fear excised from the word.

Fowler would have been less annoyed if modern users had taken care to apply it "only to the care that has its origin in terror of being caught breaking rules or mis-stating facts." But, alas, the word was in fact destined for descriptions of such things as the care with which one plans a staycation.

The upshot for you?

Use meticulous as pretty much everyonethese days does:

to mean "painstakingly careful."

And be glad that H. W. Fowler's ghost isn't even taking notice.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language,

me·tic′u·los′i·ty (-lŏs′ĭ-tē), me·tic′u·lous·ness n.

me·tic′u·lous·ly adv.

Synonyms: meticulous, painstaking, careful, scrupulous, fastidious, punctilious

These adjectives mean showing or marked by attentiveness to all aspects or details.

Meticulous and painstaking stress extreme care:

He had throughout been almost worryingly meticulous in his business formalities"

(Arnold Bennett).

Repairing the fine lace entailed slow and painstaking work.

Careful suggests circumspection and solicitude:

A careful examination of the gem showed it to be fake.
Scrupulous suggests care prompted by conscience:

"He was scrupulous about paying his debts and equally scrupulous about collecting what was owed to him" (Pauli Murray).
Fastidious implies concern, often excessive, for therequirements of taste:

"Your true lover of literature is never fastidious" (Robert Southey).
Punctilious specifically applies to minute details of conduct:

"The more unpopular an opinion is, the more necessary is it that the holder should be somewhat punctilious in his observance of conventionalities generally" (Samuel Butler).

Dictionary of Problem Words and Expression

Meticulous & Scrupulous

The words are often interchangeably but should not be.

Meticulous means “unusually careful about small details,” ‘exact,” “precise,” “finicky”:

“She spends hours working with her hair because she is meticulous about her appearance.”

“A watchmaker has to be meticulous in his work.”

Scrupulous means “conscientious,” “principled.” “showing regard for what is considered right”:

“This person has a scrupulous regard for the dignity of others.”