pedantry

English

Alternative forms

• pædantry (obsolete)

Etymology

From Italian pedanteria, equivalent to pedant +‎ -ry. Compare also French pédanterie.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈpɛd.ən.tɹi/

• Audio (General South African):

  (file)

Noun

pedantry (countable and uncountable, plural pedantries)

1. An excessive attention to detail or rules.
   • 1869, Alexander John Ellis, “III. On the Pronunciation of English in the Sixteenth Century, and its Gradual Change during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries”, in On Early English Pronunciation, with Especial Reference to Shakespeare and Chaucer […] ‎^[1], volume I, London: Published for the Philological Society by Asher & Co., page 202:

     Another point on which Smart insists is the distinction between serf and surf […] A distinction can of course be made, and without much difficulty, by those who think of it, and is made by those who have formed a habit of doing so; but the distinction is so rarely made as to amount almost to pedantry […]

   1. An instance of such behaviour.

      I don’t want to listen to your pedantries anymore.

      • 1855, Charles Kingsley, “The True and Tragical History of Mr. John Oxenham of Plymouth”, in Westward Ho!: Or, The Voyages and Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight, […], volume I, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, page 209:

        [T]he southern court of the ballium had become a flower-garden, with quaint terraces, statues, knots of flowers, clipped yews and hollies, and all the pedantries of the topiarian art.

2. An overly ambitious display of learning.

Quotations

• 1695, A Reply to the Second Defence of the XXVIII Propositions, Said to Be Wrote in Answer to a Socinian Manuscript, London, page 3:

  I am adviſed to paſs by whatever does not concern the Cauſe, to bear the Imputation of affected Pœdantry, Ignorance and Arrogance.

Synonyms

• pedanticalness
• pedanticness

Related terms

• pedant
• pedantic
• pedantocracy

Translations

excessive attention to detail or rules

• Bulgarian: педантизъм (bg) m (pedantizǎm)
• Catalan: pedanteria f
• Danish: pedanteri (da)
• Dutch: betweterigheid (nl) f, frikkerigheid
• Finnish: pikkutarkkuus, pedanttisuus (fi), saivartelu (fi)
• French: pédantisme (fr) m
• German: Pedanterie (de) f
• Greek: σχολαστικότητα (el) f (scholastikótita)
• Hungarian: pedantéria (hu)
• Icelandic: smámunasemi f, smásmygli f
• Italian: pedantismo (it) m
• Polish: pedanteria (pl) f
• Portuguese: pedantismo (pt) m
• Russian: педанти́чность (ru) f (pedantíčnostʹ), педанти́зм (ru) m (pedantízm)
• Swedish: pedanteri (sv) n

instance of being pedantic

• Catalan: pedanteria f
• Finnish: viisastelu (fi), saivartelu (fi)
• French: pédanterie (fr) f
• Icelandic: smámunasemi f, smásmygli f
• Portuguese: pedantice f
• Spanish: pedantería (es) f

overly ambitious display of learning

• Dutch: pedanterie (nl)
• Finnish: viisastelu (fi), rikkiviisaus
• French: pédanterie (fr) f
• German: Pedanterie (de) f
• Greek: δοκησισοφία (el) f (dokisisofía)
• Hebrew: דקדוקי עניות (he) (dikdûkei aniyût)
• Korean: 현학 (hyeonhak)
• Portuguese: pedantismo (pt) m
• Spanish: pedantería (es) f

Further reading

• “pedantry”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “pedantry”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “pedantry”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.