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pedant

   Also found in: Acronyms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia 0.03 sec.
ped·ant  (pdnt)
n.
1. One who pays undue attention to book learning and formal rules.
2. One who exhibits one's learning or scholarship ostentatiously.
3. Obsolete A schoolmaster.

[French pédant or Italian pedante (French, from Italian), possibly from Vulgar Latin *paedns, *paedent-, present participle of *paedere, to instruct, probably from Greek paideuein, from pais, paid-, child; see pedo-2.]

pedant
Noun
a person who is concerned chiefly with insignificant detail or who relies too much on academic learning [Italian pedante teacher]
pedantic adj
pedantically adv
ThesaurusLegend:  Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Noun1.pedantpedant - a person who pays more attention to formal rules and book learning than they merit
purist - someone who insists on great precision and correctness (especially in the use of words)
bookman, scholar, scholarly person, student - a learned person (especially in the humanities); someone who by long study has gained mastery in one or more disciplines
Translations
Spanish pedant [ˈpɛdənt] npedante m/f
German pedant [ˈpɛdənt] nPedant(in) m(f)

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O, I know he's a good fellow--you needn't frown--an excellent fellow, and I always mean to see more of him; but a hide-bound pedant for all that; an ignorant, blatant pedant.
He was a pedant, to the most extreme point, the greatest pedant I had met on earth, and with that had a vanity only befitting Alexander of Macedon.
This is that Lavalle whom the world, immersed in speculations of immediate gain, did not know nor suspect--the Lavalle whom they adjudged to the last a pedant and a theorist.
 
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