Text 5939, 86 rader
Skriven 2006-08-10 16:15:00 av Robert E Starr JR (6436.babylon5)
Ärende: Re: Return of the Nitpick
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Nicole Massey wrote:
> In terms of the phrase "nitpicking", a nit is a small ball of cloth that.=
.=2E

Well, The Word Detective decided to answer my e-mail in his column.
Here is the question and answer as they appeared on his web site and in
any number of papers this month:

The Word Detective
By Evan Morris
Copyright =A9 2006 by Evan Morris
For Release: Friday, August 18, 2006


Dear Word Detective:

A recent internet exchange where somebody was
pegged as a "nit-picker" for pointing out errors in grammar and usage
produced this post:

"In terms of the phrase 'nitpicking,' a 'nit' is a
small ball of cloth that is produced by yarn in things like sweaters
and
such. Nitpickers were the people who removed such things from the
garment so that it had a smooth appearance, and as such, were required
to be very exacting and detail-oriented. This is where the term in
common use came from."

The previous discussion had all been about
"nits" as in small insects or larvae and primate grooming behavior,
which strikes me as a much more likely origin for the term. The post
quoted above strikes me as more like folk etymology than a probable
explanation. -- Joe.

Gosh, that sounds like a great job. Is that something I could do at
home while I watch TV? I'm very detail-oriented, as long as the details
are simple and don't involve numbers. I've tried those
envelope-stuffing gigs, but I seem to wind up with pretty serious paper
cuts and the cats always steal the stamps.

You're absolutely correct in your suspicion that the explanation of
"nitpicker" you read is off-base. It sounds, as a matter of fact, like
something invented by someone (not necessarily the person who posted
it)
who knew the truth, but chose to "sanitize" the origin of the term to
avoid offending people who might be disturbed by a discussion of
"nits." But hey, "disturbing" is our middle name around here.

A "nit" is the egg (or larva) of a louse, especially the common head
louse that has plagued humans throughout our species' history. Nits
having been a constant feature of human society for so long, the word
itself is very old, going back to an Indo-European root, and most
European languages have a word closely related to our English "nit."

Nits are very tiny things, and thus, as you mention, most primates
depend on family and friends to pick them off their pelts. Humans now
have fine combs for this, but for much of history it helped to have
someone who would undertake the cleaning.

"Nit" has been used to mean an insignificant or foolish person since
the
16th century ("Thou Flea, thou Nit, thou winter cricket thou,"
Shakespeare, 1616), but "nitwit," meaning a very stupid person, is a
fairly recent invention, dating only to 1914. Surprisingly, although
people have been picking nits off of each other for centuries,
"nitpicker" is even more recent, first appearing in the early 1950s in
the sense of someone who finds and complains about the smallest flaws.

Interestingly, "nitpicker" has apparently never been used in a literal
sense to mean someone who finds and removes nits, only in the
"overzealous critic" sense.

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Do you ever wonder where a word or phrase came from? Send your queries
to The Word Detective, P.O. Box 1, Millersport, Ohio 43046. We can
also be reached via e-mail at questions@word-detective.com. A free
archive of previous columns can be found at www.word-detective.com.
                                                              
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