nit
n. countablen. the egg of a tiny insect called a louse, which lives in human hair. People also use the word to describe a small, unimportant mistake that someone complains about.
n. the egg of a parasitic louse, typically found attached to human hair. In figurative usage, refers to a trivial detail or minor shortcoming that is the subject of pedantic criticism.
The school nurse checked the children for nits.
The editor found a few nits in the final draft, but the overall argument was very strong.
While the technical report was fundamentally sound, the committee spent hours arguing over minor nits regarding the formatting of the appendices rather than addressing the core data.
From Middle English nite, from Old English hnitu, from Proto-Germanic hnits (compare Dutch neet, German Nisse, Norwegian nit), from Proto-Indo-European -níd- (compare Scottish Gaelic sneadh, Lithuanian gli̇̀nda, Polish gnida, Albanian thëri, Ancient Greek κονίς (konís)).
From Latin nitēre (“to shine”).
Commonly used in the plural form; the figurative sense is often found in the compound 'nit-picking'.