A pedant is a person who is excessively concerned with

formalism Formalism may refer to: * Form (disambiguation) * Formal (disambiguation) * Legal formalism, legal positivist view that the substantive justice of a law is a question for the legislature rather than the judiciary * Formalism (linguistics) * Scie ...

, accuracy and precision, or one who makes an ostentatious and arrogant show of learning.

Etymology

The

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...

word ''pedant'' comes from the French ''pédant'' (used in 1566 in Darme & Hatzfeldster's ''Dictionnaire général de la langue française'') or its older mid-15th century

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

source ''pedante'', 'teacher, schoolmaster'. (Compare the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

''pedante.'') The origin of the Italian ''pedante'' is uncertain, but several dictionaries suggest that it was contracted from the medieval

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''pædagogans,'' present

participle In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...

of ''pædagogare'', 'to act as pedagogue, to teach' ( Du Cange) (see

pedagogy Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken ...

). The Latin word is derived from

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

, ''paidagōgós'', 'child' + 'to lead', which originally referred to a slave who escorted children to and from school but later meant "a source of instruction or guidance".

Medical conditions

Obsessive–compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) is in part characterized by a form of pedantry that is excessively concerned with the correct following of rules, procedures, and practices. Sometimes the rules that OCPD sufferers obsessively follow are of their own devising, or are corruptions or reinterpretations of the letter of actual rules. Pedantry can also be an indication of specific developmental disorders. In particular, people with

Asperger syndrome Asperger syndrome (AS), also known as Asperger's, is a former neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of beha ...

often have behaviour characterized by pedantic speech.

References

{{reflist, 2 Human behavior Pejorative terms for people