pedant
[ ped-nt ]
/ ˈpɛd nt /
noun
a person who makes an excessive or inappropriate display of learning.
a person who overemphasizes rules or minor details.
a person who adheres rigidly to book knowledge without regard to common sense.
Obsolete. a schoolmaster.
RELATED WORDS
Nearby words
pedal point, pedal pushers, pedal steel guitar, pedalfer, pedalo, pedant, pedantic, pedanticism, pedantocracy, pedantry, pedate
Related formsped·ant·esque, adjectiveped·ant·hood, noun
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Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for pedant
British Dictionary definitions for pedant
pedant
/ (ˈpɛdənt) /
noun
a person who relies too much on academic learning or who is concerned chiefly with insignificant detail
archaic a schoolmaster or teacher
Word Origin for pedant
C16: via Old French from Italian pedante teacher; perhaps related to Latin paedagōgus pedagogue
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for pedant
pedant
1580s, "schoolmaster," from Middle French pédant (1560s) or directly from Italian pedante, literally "teacher, schoolmaster," of uncertain origin, apparently an alteration of Late Latin paedagogantem (nominative paedagogans), present participle of paedagogare (see pedagogue). Meaning "person who trumpets minor points of learning" first recorded 1590s.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper