A stickler is somebody who insists on a rule being kept exactly. A stickler for detail, a stickler for punctuality, quite a stickler.
It takes for and is grudgingly respectful: a stickler is annoying and usually right. The word once meant an umpire at a wrestling match, and Cornish wrestling judges carried sticks, which is probably where the name came from.
1nounsticklerSomebody who insists on a rule being kept exactly.
“Our teacher is a stickler for punctuality and locks the door at nine sharp.”
stickler is a person.
Middle English stightelere meant an umpire or moderator, from a verb meaning to arrange or control.
Middle English
stighteler
English, today
stickler
From Middle English stighteler, stytelere, equivalent to stickle + -er. The judges at Cornish wrestling matches do indeed carry sticks which serve for signalling and as a badge of their office. This practice has evolved from holding swords and then swordsticks.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA