noun
pedant
PED-unt/ˈpednt/
Someone excessively concerned with minor rules or scholarly details.
The pedant corrects a tiny mark while the main practical work waits unfinished.
Etymology
Italian pedante meant 'schoolmaster'; its deeper origin is uncertain. The English word shifted from a teacher to someone who makes excessive displays of learning or insists on trifling details.
In context
often the case he can give us nothing more General than the discussion of the points of a horse that perhaps we have never seen he is as great a pedant in his way
More examples
- Only a pedant would reject the whole argument over one misplaced comma.
- She becomes a pedant whenever anyone gets a historical date slightly wrong.
- The committee's pedants debate formatting while urgent decisions wait.
Forms
pedant · pedants
pedantic adjective — Excessively concerned with rules or scholarly details.
pedantry noun — Excessive concern with minor rules or scholarly details.
Similar words
- stickler
- Insists on following rules, not necessarily minor or scholarly ones.
- nitpicker
- Focuses on small faults rather than displaying scholarly knowledge.