Word of the day: punctilio

The word of the day is punctilio:

< Italian puntiglio trifling point (1551; now obsolete), minute detail of action or conduct, nicety of behaviour, point of honour (a1556), stubborn insistence upon minutiae of action or conduct (a1556), cavil, quibble, sophistry (a1580) and its etymon Spanish puntillo dot (a1435), minute detail of action or conduct, nicety of behaviour, point of honour
Forms in punct- are after classical Latin punctum.

 A. n.

 1.a. A minute detail of action or conduct; a nicety of behaviour, ceremony, or honour; a small or petty formality. Also: a hair-splitting or fastidious objection; a scruple. †to stand upon punctilios and variants: to have particular regard for niceties of conduct, etc.; to be punctilious (cf. to stand upon points at point n.¹ Phrases 3h) (obs.).

b. A small or trifling point, detail, or particular; a particle, jot. Obs. 

c. A precise point or fact. Obs. rare.

2.a. As a mass noun: strict observance of or insistence upon minutiae of action or conduct; petty formality; punctiliousness.

b. Prob.: a punctilious person. Obs. rare^—1.

3. A sharp point; (also) a point marked on a sundial. Obs. rare.. 

4. The highest point, the apex (lit. and fig.); a high projecting point or tip. Obs. rare.

5. A moment, an instant. Only in punctilio of time. Obs. 

B. adj. (attrib.).  Trifling, petty. Obs.  (OED)

"He takes refuge in the swagger of his splenetic punctilio, which imposes a sense of command on a life that is transparently hapless."

 - John Lahr, "Stir Crazy: Delusions in Adam Rapp, Nikolai Gogol, and the Wooster Group", 7 March 2011 The New Yorker