pedantically

Variant of pedant

noun

  1. a person who puts unnecessary stress on minor or trivial points of learning, displaying a scholarship lacking in judgment or sense of proportion
  2. a narrow-minded teacher who insists on exact adherence to a set of arbitrary rules
  3. Obsolete a schoolmaster

Origin: Fr pédant, pedant, schoolmaster < It pedante, ult. < Gr paidagōgos: see pedagogue

Related Forms:

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
link/cite print suggestion box