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pedantry

[ped-n-tree] /ˈpɛd n tri/
noun, plural pedantries.
1.
the character, qualities, practices, etc., of a pedant, especially undue display of learning.
2.
slavish attention to rules, details, etc.
3.
an instance of being pedantic:
the pedantries of modern criticism.
Origin
Italian
1575-1585
1575-85; Italian pedanteria. See pedant, -ry
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2015.
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Examples from the web for pedantry
  • The agendas of interdisciplinary conferences, as they are often called, can smack of pedantry and pretension.
  • pedantry is a false pattern based on a lack of perspective and judgement regarding what is relevant and appropriate.
  • Engaging and often amusing, the book is serious, but without a whiff of pedantry.
  • It is not simply a matter of pedantry to be careful and scrupulous about such evidence.
  • The pedantry opportunity to correct this particular misspelling was too good to resist.
  • Only when they are married does she realize his pedantry and pettiness.
  • Awesome, another prescriptivist would-be copy editor flooding the article with his pedantry.
  • Please excuse my pedantry, but your last post is ambiguous.
  • By these means the poets, for many years past, were all overrun with pedantry.
  • The many citations of recondite literature do not escape the suspicion of parade and pedantry.
British Dictionary definitions for pedantry

pedantry

/ˈpɛdəntrɪ/
noun (pl) -ries
1.
the habit or an instance of being a pedant, esp in the display of useless knowledge or minute observance of petty rules or details
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Word Origin and History for pedantry
n.

1610s, from Italian pedanteria, from pedante, or from French pédanterie, from pédant (see pedant).

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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