On Wed, 08 Apr 2009 20:10:14 -0700, Dan Abel > wrote:
>In article >,
> Melba's Jammin' > wrote:
>
>> Kimberly's reply in Jill's thread, "Let's Talk About Picky Eater's Again
>> <G>" got me to wondering if there is a difference between picky and
>> fussy. In my mind there is, but I am having a difficult time
>> articulating it.
>
>I thought there was a difference. I read the other posts. No, there
>isn't a distinct, definable difference. I looked at my dictionary,
>which I do often. The first word used in the definition of both was
>"fastidious". Well, that was a clue. The first example in both related
>to food. OK. The thesaurus entry for "fussy" cited "picky", although
>at the end. There was no thesaurus entry for "picky".
>
You do make frequent use of your dictionary, and I've often been
grateful for that. But in this case, might we look at the verbs
related to those two adjectives and get a bit beyond a dictionary's
authority? I say this because of one of Kimberly's posts in this
thread. I recall that she told Barb that she would never make a fuss
over something that was served to her.
I know that "fuss" is a noun in that construction, but one might fuss
(verb) in certain circumstances. The child sitting next to me at the
restaurant tonight certainly fussed, and more's the pity. There's
also the "fussing over x like a mother hen" construction, which
carries something of an air of condescension towards whichever mother
hen is under discussion.
Fussing is never pleasant in my experience. It is socially
disruptive, or at best it's behavior one dismisses as silly.
But when it comes to picking, I can see an alternative. I might pick
on somebody, and if I do, it's not pleasant -- socially disruptive. On
the other hand, I might pick a teammate in a game. Hard feelings may
arise from picking you over Blake to respond to in a discussion of
being picky, but they may not. I might pick the salmon for dinner and
the waiter and the cook and the salmon won't care, all things being
equal (and the salmon already dead). This seems to be a little like
"picking only the finest ingredients" and "picking the corn when it's
ripe", which may offer a clue to a certain neutrality for at least
some of the uses of the adjective "picky."
I might just pick at my food, which makes for a nuanced situation. Why
do I pick? (Is this like asking why am I picky? Not exactly. It's
more like asking why am I picky under these circumtances.) Numerous
reasons for picking come to mind. I might be ill or upset or simply
not hungry. Or I might not like what was served. In this last case,
I'm picky because I've sampled the wares and found them wanting like
corn not yet ready to pick or an ingredient not determined to be the
finest.
Some of those reasons for picking are unpleasant (illness, being
upset) others are rather neutral (not hungry, don't like the dish).
Outside the possibility that I have some power over the cook (I'm king
and he must please my palate or die), my just not liking a dish and
therefore picking at it would seem to constitute a more nearly neutral
case than at least some other instances of "picking" and most uses of
"fussing."
In one instance, I didn't eat much. In the other, I actively sought
confrontation.
>
>> I repeat my question: Is there a difference between a fussy eater and a
>> picky eater? How would you describe the differences?
>
>Don't think so, after a day's reflection.
Might the verbs help us choose the adjectives?
OB Dictionaries. Have you read Simon Winchester's book "The Professor
and the Madman?" One of the most prolific contributors to the first
edition of the OED was a homicidal madman! A review can be had he
http://www.salon.com/books/sneaks/1998/09/03sneaks.html
--
modom