pedant
noun
- person obsessed with detail or process
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈpɛdənt/
adj
Etymology: From Middle French pedant, pedante, from Italian pedante (“a teacher, schoolmaster, pedant”), associated with unrelated Italian pedagogo (“teacher, pedagogue”). Compare French pédant.
- Pedantic.
noun
Etymology: From Middle French pedant, pedante, from Italian pedante (“a teacher, schoolmaster, pedant”), associated with unrelated Italian pedagogo (“teacher, pedagogue”). Compare French pédant.
- A person who makes an excessive or tedious show of their knowledge, especially regarding rules of vocabulary and grammar.
- A person who is overly concerned with formal rules and trivial points of learning.
- A teacher or schoolmaster.
“I have in my youth oftentimes beene vexed to see a Pedant [tr. pedante] brought in, in most of Italian comedies, for a vice or sport-maker, and the nicke-name of Magister to be of no better signification amongst us.”
verb
Etymology: From Middle French pedant, pedante, from Italian pedante (“a teacher, schoolmaster, pedant”), associated with unrelated Italian pedagogo (“teacher, pedagogue”). Compare French pédant.
- To be or act as a pedant.
“[…] as any occasion of going behond^([sic – meaning beyond]) the sea with sombody, or pedanting in some Gentlemans house, &c., for clergy-employment I will accept of none.”
“Tediously he pedanted, hedging around concerning the Perfect State, eventually coming out into the open with his own private Perfect State plan.”