Nearby Words

pedant

[ped-nt] Example Sentences Origin

ped·ant

[ped-nt]
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.

Origin:
1580–90; < Italian pedante teacher, pedant; apparently akin to pedagogue; see -ant

ped·ant·esque, adjective
ped·ant·hood, noun


2. hairsplitter.

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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Pedant is always a great word to know.
So is ort. Does it mean:
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.
Example Sentences
  • It is not just the pedants who persist in this usage.
  • Maybe I'm just a pedant at heart.
  • I'm just being a wizened little pedant, but you got me riled up.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
pedant (ˈpɛdənt)
 
n
1.  a person who relies too much on academic learning or who is concerned chiefly with insignificant detail
2.  archaic a schoolmaster or teacher
 
[C16: via Old French from Italian pedante teacher; perhaps related to Latin paedagōguspedagogue]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

pedant
1588, "schoolmaster," from M.Fr. pédant (1566), from It. pedante "teacher, schoolmaster," apparently an alteration of L.L. paedagogantem (nom. paedagogans), prp. of paedagogare (see pedagogue). Meaning "person who trumpets minor points of learning" first recorded 1596.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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