pedantic

comparative more pedantic · superlative most pedantic · alternative rare pædantic · alternative obsolete pedantick

1. Being overly concerned with formal rules and trivial points of learning, like a pedant.

   Bad news for a certain kind of pedantic patriot (look away now, Jacob Rees-Mogg). Prince Charles has debased the English language – and in a letter to a foreign potentate, no less.

   2019 April 18, David Shariatmadari, “Ize on the prize: is Prince Charles the last guardian of British spelling?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 16 Aug 2019

   Synonyms: anal-retentive, fussy, nit-picky

2. Tending to show off one’s knowledge, often in a tiresome manner.

   The style is pedantic and reviewish: but I can easily fancy states of mind to which it may be no less salutary on that account.

   1838, Richard Hurrell Froude, John Henry Newman, John Keble, Remains of the Late Reverend Richard Hurrell Froude, page 416

   1 more example

   They had heard people call things pedantic, which they did not think were so ; for instance, a boy had once said that Harry himself was a pedant, for talking of the siege of Syracuse, and of the machines used there, because the boy knew nothing about them, and disliked reading. "Then you perceive," said his mother, "that the meaning of the word varies with the different degrees of knowledge of those who use it. I remember when it was thought pedantic for a woman to talk of some books, which are now the subject of common conversation. Sometimes old-fashioned learning, and sometimes useless learning, is called pedantry; and it is generally thought pedantic to produce any kind of learning that is so unusual, that it is not likely that the company is acquainted with it, or can be pleased by it. In short, pedantry may be said to be an ill-timed parade of knowledge."

   1825, "Works" by Maria Edgeworth page 150

   Synonyms: nit-picky, ostentatious, pedagogical, pretentious