Conscientious means doing every part of a job carefully, every time. Not brilliant necessarily — thorough, and reliable about it.
It is one of the warmest words a reference can hold: a conscientious student, a conscientious worker who checks the figures twice. The root is conscience, and the link is real, since a conscientious person feels the duty rather than merely performing it. The phrase conscientious objector names somebody who refuses military service because their conscience forbids it. Watch the spelling, which is among the most often got wrong in English.
1adjectiveconscientiousCareful and thorough in doing what is required.
“She was a conscientious note-taker.”
synonyms: diligent, meticulous
Medieval Latin
cōnscientiōsus
Middle French
conscientieux
English, today
conscientious
From Middle French conscientieux, from Medieval Latin cōnscientiōsus. Its English equivalent could possibly be analyzed as conscient + ous. See more at conscience.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA