pedant

thumb|240px|The Pedant by caricaturist Thomas Rowlandson Pedantry ( ) is an excessive concern with formalism, minor details, and rules that are not important.

== Etymology == Pedantry is the adjective form of the 1580s English word pedant, which meant a male schoolteacher at the time. The word pedant originated from the French word for "schoolmaster", , in the 1560s, or from the Italian word for "teacher, schoolmaster", . Both of these words are likely an alteration of Late Latin word . The pejorative meaning of a "person who trumpets minor points of learning... or lays undue stress on exact knowledge of details" comes from the 1590s. In ancient Greece, a paedagogus was a slave entrusted with teaching young Roman boys.