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Origin and history of nitpick

nitpick(v.)

also nit-pick, "seek petty faults," 1962, a back-formation from earlier nitpicker. Related: Nitpicking (1956); nitpicky.

also from 1962

Entries linking to nitpick

nitpicker(n.)

also nit-picker, "pedantic critic," by 1951, perhaps 1946, a figurative use, said to be originally military jargon; see nit (n.) + pick (v.).

Two long-time Pentagon stand-bys are fly-speckers and nit-pickers. The first of these nouns refers to people whose sole occupation seems to be studying papers in the hope of finding flaws in the writing, rather than making any effort to improve the thought or meaning; nit-pickers are those who quarrel with trivialities of expression and meaning, but who usually end up without making concrete or justified suggestions for improvement. [Collier's, Nov. 24, 1951]
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    Trends of nitpick

    adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

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    knock
    Old English cnocian (West Saxon cnucian), "to pound, beat; knock (on a door)," likely of imitative origin. Figurative meaning "deprecate, put down" is from 1892. Related: Knocked; knocking. Of engines from 1869. To knock back (a drink) "swallow quickly or at a gulp" is from 1931.
    spoil
    c. 1300, spoilen, "strip (someone) violently of clothes, strip a slain enemy," from Anglo-French espoiller, Old French espoillier, espillier "strip, plunder, pillage" and directly from Latin spoliare "strip, uncover, lay bare; strip of clothing, rob, plunder, pillage," a verb fro
    device
    c. 1300, devis, "intent, desire; an expressed intent or desire; a plan or design; a literary composition," from Old French devis "division, separation; disposition, wish, desire; coat of arms, emblem; a bequest in a will, act of bequeathing," from deviser "arrange, plan, contrive
    Spam
    proprietary name registered by Geo. A. Hormel & Co. in U.S., 1937; probably a conflation of spiced ham. Soon extended to other kinds of canned meat. Figurative of what is bland or unexciting by 1959. In the sense of "internet junk mail" it was coined by Usenet users some time
    sphere
    a re-Latinized spelling, attested beginning mid-15c., of Middle English spere (c. 1300) "cosmos; space, conceived as a hollow globe about the world," from Anglo-French espiere, Old French espere (13c., Modern French sphère), from Latin sphaera "globe, ball, celestial sphere" (Med
    riffraff
    also riff-raff, late 15c., "persons of disreputable character or low degree," from earlier rif and raf (Anglo-French rif et raf) "one and all, everybody; every scrap, everything," also "sweepings, refuse, things of small value" (mid-14c.), from Old French rif et raf, from rifler
    geometry
    early 14c., also gemetrie, gemetry, from Old French geometrie (12c., Modern French géométrie), from Latin geometria, from Greek geometria "measurement of earth or land; geometry," from combining form of gē "earth, land" (see Gaia) + -metria "a measuring of" (see -metry). Old Engl
    entertain
    late 15c., "to keep up, maintain, to keep (someone) in a certain frame of mind," from Old French entretenir "hold together, stick together, support" (12c.), from entre- "among" (from Latin inter; see inter-) + tenir "to hold" (from Latin tenere, from PIE root *ten- "to stretch").
    spring
    Middle English springen, from Old English springan "to leap, leap up, jump;" of a fountain, spring, etc., "burst forth;" also "fly up; spread, grow" (class III strong verb; past tense sprang, past participle sprungen). This is from Proto-Germanic *sprenganan (source also of Old N
    asparagus
    plant cultivated for its edible shoots, late 14c., aspergy; earlier sparage (late Old English), from Latin asparagus (in Medieval Latin often in the form sparagus), from Greek asparagos/aspharagos, which is of uncertain origin; perhaps with euphonic a- + PIE root *sp(h)er(e)g- "t

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