The term meticulous can be traced back to a mid-sixteenth-century collection of poetry. It was derived from the Latin word meticulosus, which originally meant “frightful” or “timid”. This association between being meticulous and being fearful of imperfections, akin to obsessive-compulsive disorder, is quite interesting. The root of meticulosus can be linked to the Latin fourth declension noun metus, meaning “fear”. Beyond this point, the etymology becomes unclear. Interestingly, those familiar with Spanish may recognize metus as the root of the word miedo, which translates to “fear”. In English, the Latin term was also used with a similar meaning until the seventeenth century. According to Google NGrams, the use of the word meticulous in literature peaked in 1985 and has been on a decline since then. However, Google searches for the term have increased since the platform began tracking in 2004.
