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  EDline Vol. 7, no. 38     (14 February 2002)

  Editorial mailing list (digest version)
  Published by the Electric Editors
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  Contents:

         Q & A
  [2rz]  Pedantic

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---[2]-- Q & A --------------------------------------------------


** [2rz] Pedantic

         Date: Tues, 5 Feb 2002
         From: Viviane Lowe, vivilowe@bluewin.ch

When I lived in Australia a few years ago I noticed and was much
irritated by the frequent use of "pedantic" to signify
fastidious, picky, particular: "My boss is so pedantic - he makes
me clean the burger grill with a toothbrush."

I can see how pedantic = "characterized by a narrow, often
ostentatious concern for book learning and formal rules" (acc. to
American Heritage online) slipped into meaning generally someone
who shows excessive attention to trivial details, but wonder if
this is now an accepted meaning in OZ-glish? Has it been sighted
in UK or US usage? What does OED say ?


         ----------------------
         Date: Tues, 5 Feb 2002
         From: Judy Stein, stein@panix.com

Haven't heard or seen it here in the U.S. Northeast.


         ----------------------
         Date: Tues, 5 Feb 2002
         From: Michele Clarke, michele.clarke@btinternet.com

I think it's fairly common in Britain. The OED says 'a person
excessively concerned with minor detail' and the thesaurus gives
'fussy and pernickety' amongst other terms.


         ---------------------
         Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2002
         From: Yoel Strimling, yoel@docustar.co.il

In Hebrew, the term "pedanti" (as in "Hu meod pedanti" "He is
very pedantic") is used in that exact sense - an adjective
indicating that someone is picky unto death. It's hardly, if
ever, used in its original connotation here in Israel.


         -----------------------
         Date: Thurs, 7 Feb 2002
         From: Nick Hudson, hudson@c031.aone.net.au

For what it's worth, here is Johnson:

  PEDANTIC
  PEDA'NTICAL.adj. [pedantesque, Fr. from pedant.]

  Awkwardly ostentatious of learning.

  Mr. Cheeke had eloquence in the Latin and Greek tongues; but
  for other sufficiencies pedantick enough. --Hayward.

  When we see any thing in an old satyrist, that looks forced and
  pedantic, we ought to consider how it appeared in the time the
  poet writ. --Addison.

  The obscurity is brought over them by ignorance and age, made
  yet more obscure by their pedantical elucidators. --Felton.

  A spirit of contradiction is so pedantick and hateful, that a
  man should watch against every instance of it. --Watts.

  We now believe the Copernican system; yet we shall still use
  the popular terms of sun-rise and sun-set, and not introduce a
  new pedantick description of them from the motion of the earth.
  --Bentleyıs Sermons.


         -----------------------
         Date: Thurs, 7 Feb 2002
         From: Michael Lewis, mlewis@brandle.com.au

Then again, I think it was Bertrand Russell (a little more recent
than Johnson) who said "I don't see what is wrong with pedantry.
It is, after all, merely a concern for accuracy."

Woe betide the non-pedantic editor, eh?


         -----------------------
         Date: Thurs, 7 Feb 2002
         From: Viviane Lowe, vivilowe@bluewin.ch

Thank you Bertrand Russel!

I suppose it was because I tend to be quite pedantic myself -
very quick to run to the dictionary to prove my superior learning
- that I objected so much to people using the word to describe
exaggerated concern for order in the kitchen or the sock drawer,
rather than issues of scholarship.


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