Word of the Day

Saturday December 26, 2009

finical [FIN-ih-kuhl]

adjective

It is a hard scene to watch, and the actors, and director Michael Rudman, spare us nothing. It is a fact that the new Irish Republic allowed the Germans to park U-boats on their shores, and that Pope Pius XII knew about the death camps. Hindsight makes it worse, but Sean Campions finical, bespectacled Mallin, shuffling papers in docile compliance, at least runs up a flag for the idea of solidarity between two new European national enterprises.

Michael Coveney, "THEATRE", The Independent, Mar 12, 2009
This can be rewarding - there is great, if sometimes finical and over-elaborated intelligence at work - but also frustrating; since he conjures up his wild and wonderful menagerie while screening it behind speculative bars.

Richard Eder, "Collected Poems", International Herald Tribune, Dec 27, 2006
Nevertheless, to some the very word etiquette is an irritant. It implies a great bother about trifles, these conscientious objectors assure us, and trifles are unimportant. Trifles are unimportant, it is true, but then life is made up of trifles. To those who dislike the word, it suggests all that is finical and superfluous.

Emily Post (1872 - 1960) An American author on etiquette. Etiquette (1922)

Origin of the Word

Finical, approximately 1592, "too particular", perhaps from fine (adjective) + -ical as in cynical, ironical.