pe·dan·tic[1] [puh-dan-tik]
adj
1. ostentatious in one’s learning.
2. overly concerned with minute details or formalisms, especially in teaching.
Origin:
1590–1600; pedant + -ic
Related Quote:
“Just as in habiliments it is a sign of weakness to wish to make oneself noticeable by some peculiar and unaccustomed fashion, so, in language, the quest for new-fangled phrases and little-known words comes from a puerile and pedantic ambition.”
–Michel de Montaigne[2]
I have no idea why this was the first “p” word that came to mind when I decided to take back up with the “Word of the Day” thing I started a very long time ago.
At the time I thought I was only going to have 26 days worth of posts and that it would be finished in less than a month. HA! Cause it’s funny that I thought that’s how it would work.[3]
The whole point of The Word of the Day was to give me a writing prompt of sorts since it gets hard to come up with stuff to write about. Take this post, for instance: Word of the Day: Cruciverbalist. The post is super short and the video cracks me up and I managed to write something that day so I was proud of myself.
Today is one of those days, I guess.
Wonder what word I’ll chose for Q?
- [1]http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pedantic↩
- [2]Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592), French essayist. “Of the Education of Children,” Essays (1580).↩
- [3]This started over a year ago and was Heather Solos‘s fault. Just thought I should point that out.↩
