Word of the Day for Thursday August 25, 2005

peccadillo \peck-uh-DIL-oh\, noun:
A slight offense; a petty fault.

No peccadillo is too trivial: we learn that the mogul once
blew his top because his laundry came back starched
("'Fluff and fold!' he screamed").
--Eric P. Nash, "High Concept," [1]New York Times, May 10,
1998

And besides, "what do they say? 'Don't judge lest you be
judged.' Everybody has their peccadilloes."
-- "Tyson has a friend in his corner," [2]Irish Times,
October 21,1999

Child of a dominant mother, victim of a guilt-ridden
conscience, [St. Augustine] wrote bewilderingly haunted
'Confessions,' in which infantile peccadilloes like
stealing apples and adolescent fumblings with instinctive
sexuality are bewailed with all the anguish of a frustrated
perfectionist.
--Geoffrey Parker, "True Believers," [3]New York Times,
June 29, 1997
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Peccadillo comes from Spanish pecadillo, "little sin,"
diminutive of pecado, "sin," from Latin peccatum, from
peccare, "to make a mistake, to err, to sin." It is related to
impeccable, "without flaw or fault."