Time then to get down to the nitty-gritty (1963), “the heart of the matter,” “the essential facts.” What’s more important: the nits or the grits?

Nits are simply the eggs or larvae of insects such as lice. Being almost microscopic, they are extremely difficult to spot. Getting down to them means attending to the smallest details.

Grit initially described the fineness, coarseness, etc texture of stone. Those considered clear grit were considered “of good hard quality.” It wasn’t easy sifting through it all, searching for the best grit.

John Wayne’s true grit enabled him to grit it out, “to endure even the most difficult situation.” To be the grit was to have genuine spirit or pluck; to be the ‘right sort’, the genuine ‘article’—but only to a point.

To be a successful nitpicker, you have to be obsessive about the smallest of details and the most petty of matters. Whatever impels you to be so meticulous? It’s the Latin metus, “fear” + the diminutive ul+ osus, “full of,” leaving you “full of little fears.”

Could it be that you are fear-driven? Worse yet is when you become overly fastidious from the Latin fastidiosus, “disdainful” or “squeamish” from fastus, “contempt’+ taedium, “aversion,” your actions becoming tedious to others, “wearisome to the point of being disgusting.” Like the nit (1902-03), which once described “an inconsequential or obnoxious person,” you too are now worthy of being picked on.