Have you ever heard the word pedantic and wondered what it meant? Click here to learn the meaning of pedantic and how to use it.
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Kevin
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February 7, 2022
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What Does the Word Pedantic Mean?
According to Dictionary.com and other English dictionaries like the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, the word pedantic is an adjective that can be used to describe a person who is hyper-concerned with minute details.
This is used frequently in educational settings and technical contexts. The word pedantic has three syllables: – pe-dan-tic. There are a few different forms of the word pedantic such as the noun pedant and adverb pedantically.
Similar to the word didactic meaning designed to teach, the word pedantic has a negative connotation. Often, someone who is pedantic is so concerned with details that it becomes annoying and nitpicky.
They might focus on the trivial aspects of something rather than the larger picture. Other synonyms for these words might have a neutral meaning, but these imply a negative sort of formality.
What Are Translations of the Word Pedantic?
There are words in many different languages worldwide that also mean pedantic. Since the word pedantic comes from the Latin language, many languages with Latin roots, such as the romance languages, may have words for pedantic that look and sound alike. This often happens with two words in different languages that have the same root.
Look at this list from Word Sense to see this example in action:
- Portuguese: pedante
- Spanish: pedante; pretencioso
- Russian: педанти́чный
- Mandarin: 教條, 教条 (jiàotiáo)
- Japanese: 杓子定規 (しゃくしじょうぎ, shakushi jyogi)
- Romanian: meticulos, pedant
- Finnish: pedanttinen, pikkumainen, pikkutarkka
- Czech: pedantský (fem.), pedantický (masc.)
- French: méticuleux
- Greek: σχολαστικός
What Is the Origin of the Word Pedantic?
When examining the etymology, the word pedantic was first used in the late 16th century, in the 1580s and 1590s. This word comes from the French pédant and Italian pedante, which refer to a schoolmaster or teacher.
This likely comes from the Late Latin paedagogantem. The word pedantic was first seen in John Donne’s “Sunne Rising,” in which he penned, “Sawcy pedantique wretch, goe chide Late schooleboyes.”
What Are Example Sentences That Contain the Word Pedantic?
Our lecturer Cal is so pedantic. Every lesson, he checks our lecture notes to make sure we got every word written down correctly. With his narrow focus, I feel like I have to re-teach myself at home because I’m so focused on worrying about small errors I might make copying down his instructions.
The pedantic teacher only taught what was in the textbooks and vowed to follow the formal rules of the district to a tee. The child’s household tutor didn’t agree with the instructor’s teaching theories and let the children read things like The Great Gatsby.
The schoolmaster had an ostentatious concern for small mistakes; his pedantic nature clashed with the new-age schoolteacher. She ignored the annoying lessons the man Goddard tried to instill and fought for her own cause of education.
Kinbote and Zembla were sisters who could not be more different. Kinbote’s room was a pigsty, and she was a free spirit who loved big parties and popularity. Zembla was very pedantic; she was interested in scientific stuff and the trivial points of learning academic knowledge.
The modern world should be concerned with the larger aspects of civilization, not the minor points of learning.
What Are Synonyms of the Word Pedantic?
Since the word pedantic has a negative connotation, it can be very useful to know synonyms for the word pedantic that do not have as negative of an implication. Synonyms are words that have the same meaning or a similar meaning to another word.
Many synonyms can be found in this list from Power Thesaurus. Some have a positive connotation, some have a negative connotation, and some have a neutral connotation.
See which ones might suit the situation you are considering using the word pedantic for:
- academic
- bookish
- didactic
- didactical
- donnish
- dry
- erudite
- exact
- exhortative
- fastidious
- finicky
- formal
- formalistic
- fussy
- hair-splitting
- hairsplitting
- inkhorn
- learned
- literalist
- literalistic
- literary
- meticulous
- moralizing
- nit-picking
- ostentatious
- overcritical
- overscrupulous
- pedagogic
- pedantical
- perfectionist
- pompous
- preachy
- precise
- pretentious
- priggish
- professorial
- punctilious
- scholarly
- scholastic
- scrupulous
- sententious
- stilted
- teachy
- well-rounded
What Are Antonyms of the Word Pedantic?
If you encounter someone or something that is the opposite of pedantic, you could describe them using an antonym of pedantic. Antonyms are words that have the opposite definition of a given word, and they can be very useful for the purposes of expanding your vocabulary.
Take a look at this list from Power Thesaurus:
- absentminded
- academic
- actual
- all wool and a yard wide
- apathetic
- as daft as a brush
- as dumb as a bag of hammers
- as dumb as a box of rocks
- as dumb as a doorknob
- as dumb as a doornail
- as dumb as a post
- as dumb as a sack of hammers
- as dumb as an ox
- as dumb as dirt
- as easy as ABC
- as silly as a goose
- as thick as a brick
- as thick as a plank
- as thick as champ
- as thick as mince
- as thick as pig shit
- as thick as pigshit
- as thick as two short planks
- ass headed
- ass-headed
- assured
- avoiding moral judgments
- blindfold
- blithe
- bold
- breathtaking
- careless
- certain
- clueless
- concrete
- cushy
- daft as a brush
- definite
- delinquent
- derelict
- disinterested
- disregardful
- disregarding
- dull-headed
- imprecise
- inexact
- mind-blowing
- negligent
- plain
- thick as pigshit
- wild
Conclusion
Overall, the word pedantic is an adjective that is used to refer to someone who is extremely meticulous and focused on small details. This is often used in educational settings but can be applied to a variety of circumstances. This word often has a negative connotation.
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