CONSCIENTIOUS

PRONUNCIATION: (kon-shee-EN-shus)

MEANING: adjective:
1. Meticulous or painstaking.
2. Following one’s conscience; scrupulous.

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin con- (intensive prefix) + from scire (to know). Ultimately from the Indo-European root skei- (to cut or split), which also gave us schism, ski, shin, science, conscience, nice, scienter, nescient, exscind, and sciolism, adscititious. Earliest documented use: 1603.
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CORNSCIENTIOUS - searching for a way to modify maize crops so that they are pest-resistant without harming Monarch butterflies

CONSCIENTIOPUS - the Bloom County penguin who reminds us to do the right thing, because somebody might be watching

CONESCIENTIOUS- studying the perception of color (or hand-held ice cream treats)