pedanticn.adj.

1607 R. C. in tr. H. Estienne World of Wonders ii. Ep. Ded. sig. V3^v That proud pedanticke..who promised immortalitie to those to whom he dedicated any of his works.

1694 R. Franck Northern Mem. 27 This Age degenerates from Potentates to Pedanticks.

1776 Blockheads i. ii. 6 I am become almost asham'd of my company; a pack of strutting pedanticks, looking like elopers from the grave.

1816 Edinb. Rev. 26 106 Madame de Staël has very happily ridiculed this pedantic's taste in criticism.

2003 Yorks. Evening Post (Nexis) 7 Apr. Nitpicking pedantics might have taken issue with..claims of central Baghdad having been entered..but their arguments have more to do with street map detail than the reality of achieved ambition.

1628 W. Prynne Vnlouelinesse of Louelockes sig. b4 I neede not feare that Schoole-boyes breeching for them, which, some Pedantique Cl[e]rikes threaten to me.

a1631 J. Donne Sunne Rising in Poems (1633) 199 Busie old foole, unruly Sunne,..Sawcy pedantique wretch, goe chide Late schooleboyes.

1644 J. Milton Areopagitica 22 When every..reader upon the first sight of a pedantick licence, will be ready with these like words to ding the book a coits distance from him.

1631 T. Goffe Raging Turke iv. vii. sig. K2^v You haue bin to me No Father, but a sowre Pedanticke wretch, One that with frosty precepts, striu'd to kill The flaming heate of my ambitious youth.

1633 T. Carew Elegie Death Donne in J. Donne Poems 386 The Muses garden with Pedantique weedes O'rspread, was purg'd by thee.

1698 Protestant Mercury 8 June 2/2 A just reprimand..for his Foppish, Pedantick, Detractive and Petulant way of writing.

1759 A. Smith Theory Moral Sentiments i. §iii. ii. 62 We grow weary of the grave, pedantic, and long-sentenced love of Cowley and Propertius, who never have done with exaggerating the violence of their attachments.

1788 T. Reid Aristotle's Logic vi. §1. 128 He was without pedantry even in that pedantic age.

1825 T. B. Macaulay Milton in Edinb. Rev. Aug. 305 He does not..sacrifice sense and spirit to pedantic refinements.

1855 J. L. Motley Rise Dutch Republic II. iii. i. 108 Rather a pedantic than a practical commander, more capable to discourse of battles than to gain them.

1871 R. Ellis tr. Catullus Poems lvii. 7 Bookish brethren, a dainty pair pedantic.

1906 J. Galsworthy Man of Prop. 183 When they danced..they bounded, twirling their partners at great pace, without pedantic attention to the rhythm of the music.

1993 Nature 28 Oct. 794/3 The book's arguments are not well served by a somewhat pedantic writing style, too full of fancy words such as ‘evidencing’, ‘processual’,..and ‘juridicial’.

1656 Earl of Monmouth tr. T. Boccalini Ragguagli di Parnasso i. xxiii. 35 Moral Sciences..are reputed meere pædantickness.

1945 P. Grainger in M. Gillies & B. C. Ross Grainger on Mus. (1999) xl. 339 Hallé's somewhat soulless pedanticness didn't stir me.