Nitpicking

{{short description|Meticulously looking for trivial errors, a term originating from removing lice eggs from hair}}

{{Other uses}}

File:Sommer, Giorgio - Famille napolitaine.jpg (1834–1914); Famille napolitaine — a Neapolitan mother searching for lice in her son's hair.]]

Nitpicking is a term, first attested in 1956, that describes the action of giving too much attention to unimportant detail.{{cite web |title=Definition of NITPICK |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nitpick |website=www.merriam-webster.com |access-date=11 January 2021 |language=en}}{{cite web |title=NITPICKING {{!}} meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary |url=https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/nitpicking |website=dictionary.cambridge.org |access-date=10 January 2021 |language=en}} A person who nitpicks is termed as a nitpicker.{{cite book|last=Dash|first=Rajendra Kumar|title=Professional learners dictionary of spoken English |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fdp4CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA336|year=2015|publisher=PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.|isbn=978-81-203-5225-4|page=336}}

The terminology originates from the common act of manually removing nits (the eggs of lice, generally head lice) from another person's hair.{{Cite book|last1=Meinking|first1=Terri|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tAlGLYplkacC&pg=PA1554|title=Pediatric Dermatology E-Book|last2=Taplin|first2=David|last3=Vicaria|first3=Maureen|date=2011|publisher=Elsevier|isbn=978-0-7234-3540-2|editor-last=Schachner|editor-first=Lawrence A.|location=|pages=1554|language=en|chapter=27. Infestations|editor-last2=Hansen|editor-first2=Ronald C.}}

As nitpicking inherently requires fastidious attention to detail, the term has become appropriated to describe the practice of meticulously searching for minor, even trivial errors in detail.{{cite book|last=Grove|first=David |title=Tapeworms, Lice, and Prions: A compendium of unpleasant infections|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KpxKAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT114|year=2013|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-165345-2|page=114}}

Nitpicking has been used to describe dishonest insurersJean-Marc Bourgeon, Pierre Picard. [https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/47713989.pdf Fraudulent Claims and Nitpicky Insurers]. cahier de recherche 2012-06. 2012 and bullying employers, or even bullying family members.[http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.652.4360&rep=rep1&type=pdf Management Bullies: The Effect on Employees]. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly. 2013, Volume 4, Number 4. {{ISSN|2152-1034}}