In message , Bill Wright
writes:
J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:

(Why do [some] people insist on using that term - anal - for other
people who want to know something they don't, or similar? I find it
unpleasant. And no, I'm not one of those referred to in this case.)

It has an honourable pedigree. Freud said that children who had
problems with toilet training developed certain personality traits
which stayed with them for life: obsessiveness, over-concern for
detail, etc.

It also ties in with the issue of when to start toilet training.
Possibly starting too early can cause these problems.

Bill

Whether Freud is still valid is debatable, but anyway, I object to it in
the same way I object to the terms nerd and anorak, and probably many
others: the people who use it use it in a way that brooks no
disagreement, because anyone disagreeing becomes
anal/nerd/anorak/whatever themselves. Mockery seems to be an inevitable
human trait, but not an admirable one.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

If it's pretentious, then at least it's not the sort that wears a horned helmet
and shrieks about trolls. - Stuart Maconie in Radio Times, 14-20 November 2009.