pedant









pedant


noun

  1. a person who makes an excessive or inappropriate display of learning.
  2. a person who overemphasizes rules or minor details.
  3. a person who adheres rigidly to book knowledge without regard to common sense.
  4. Obsolete. a schoolmaster.

noun

  1. a person who relies too much on academic learning or who is concerned chiefly with insignificant detail
  2. archaic a schoolmaster or teacher

n.1580s, “schoolmaster,” from Middle French pédant (1560s) or directly from Italian pedante, literally “teacher, schoolmaster,” of uncertain origin, apparently an alteration of Late Latin paedagogantem (nominative paedagogans), present participle of paedagogare (see pedagogue). Meaning “person who trumpets minor points of learning” first recorded 1590s.

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