faˈstidēəs sometimes fəˈ- adjective
Etymology: Middle English, haughty, disgusting, from Middle French & Latin; Middle French fastidieux disgusting, from Latin fastidiosus squeamish, haughty, disgusting, from fastidium aversion, disgust (probably irregular from fastus pride, arrogance + taedium irksomeness, disgust) + -osus -ose; akin to Latin fastigium top, extremity — more at bristle , tedium I
1. archaic : scornful , haughty
2. obsolete : disgusting , disagreeable
3.
a. : overly difficult to please : overly nice or delicate in matters of taste
grew fastidious with easy living
highbrow critics who are so esoteric and so fastidious that they can talk only to a small circle of initiates — Granville Hicks
a man falsely fastidious , finical, effeminate — Matthew Arnold
b. : marked by a meticulous, sensitive, or demanding attitude (as in matters of taste)
an extremely stylish and fastidious person
fastidious about cleanness of the person
fastidious attention to detail — Robert Evett
a fastidious aristocrat by birth and habit, he was a fine critic both of art and music — F.J.Mather
: sensitive and particular
the fastidious puritanism of Virgil — John Buchan
fastidious and well-bred and incurably polite — Elinor Wylie
amahs and houseboys fastidious in white jackets and black trousers — New Yorker
c. : reflecting a meticulous, sensitive, or demanding attitude
an oar took shape with marvelous rapidity — trimmed and smoothed with a neatness almost fastidious — John Burroughs
Europe's intellectuals, editorial writers, and theologically fastidious churchmen — Newsweek
his fastidious regard for the court's dignity — John Mason Brown
4. : having complex nutritional requirements — used of bacteria that grow only in specially fortified artificial culture media
Synonyms: see nice