Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The ostentatious display of academic knowledge, or undue attention paid to minor details or formal rules.
- noun An instance of pedantic behavior.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The manners, acts, or character of a pedant; the overrating of mere knowledge, especially of matters of learning which are really of minor importance; also, ostentatious or inappropriate display of learning.
- noun Undue addiction to the forms of a particular profession, or of some one line of life.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The act, character, or manners of a pedant; vain ostentation of learning.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun An
excessive attention todetail or rules. - noun An
instance of such behaviour. - noun An overly
ambitious display oflearning .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an ostentatious and inappropriate display of learning
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Yet this monarch of all things detested pedantry, either as it shows itself in the mere form of Greek and Latin, or in ostentatious book-learning, or in the affectation of words of remote signification: these are the only points of view in which I have been taught to consider the meaning of the term pedantry, which is very indefinite, and always a relative one.
Literary Character of Men of Genius Drawn from Their Own Feelings and Confessions Isaac Disraeli 1807
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This form of pedantry is a favorite of the far right, for some reason.
The Volokh Conspiracy » More on the Republic vs. Democracy Debate 2010
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Pedant - first rule of pedantry is to make sure that your post is perfect and to understand that the spellchecker is, like us all, fallible.
Cross & Rude « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG Inspector Gadget 2009
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So much pedantry is misplaced, and it is a waste of time to expect consistency from pedants, myself included, especially when they are hungry enough to consider compromising their pedantic principles.
So where can language snobs get their doughnuts? « Motivated Grammar 2009
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So, thank goodness for the modest, the didactic, the people who secretly revel in pedantry and exactitude.
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What you call the pedantry and priggishness and all the rest of it is exactly what poor Breckenridge asked almost on his knees, wonderful man, to be _allowed_ to pay you for; since even if the meddlers and chatterers haven't settled anything for those who know -- though which of the elect themselves after all _does_ seem to know?
The Outcry Henry James 1879
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Every couple of months Matt baits us with this Alanis reference and invariably, it ends up in pedantry. ur_land says:
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(I distinguish this from my pedantry, which is the best sort of pedantry.)
The Volokh Conspiracy » More on the Republic vs. Democracy Debate 2010
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(I distinguish this from my pedantry, which is the best sort of pedantry.)
The Volokh Conspiracy » More on the Republic vs. Democracy Debate 2010
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Every couple of months Matt baits us with this Alanis reference and invariably, it ends up in pedantry.
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