pedantic
- Excessively concerned with minor details, rules, or formal correctness, often in a way that is tiresome or irritating to others.
- Showing off specialized or academic knowledge in an ostentatious way.
In a sentence
- Her pedantic insistence on correcting every grammatical slip made her exhausting to talk with at parties.
- The editor's pedantic notes on punctuation were helpful for the final draft but slowed down the early creative stages.
Usage note. Pedantic usually carries a negative connotation of unhelpful over-precision; if careful attention to detail is genuinely useful in context, words like 'meticulous' or 'rigorous' may be more appropriate.
Where it comes from
English pedantic · entered English early 17th c.
Derived from 'pedant', which came into English in the late 16th century from French 'pédant' or Italian 'pedante', meaning a schoolteacher or one who displays learning obtrusively. The ultimate origin may relate to Greek 'paideuein' (to teach a child), from 'pais' (child). 'Pedantic' as an adjective form is recorded in English from the early 17th century.