I love the turn of a New Year, a chance to start fresh, to focus my energy in novel and exciting directions. I also like the clean pages of my new kitchen calendar, as yet uncluttered by color-coded scheduling notes.
In the spirit of goals and self-evaluation that January inspires, I’m starting this year with a Word Nerd Word of caution: pedantic.
My friend Valerie shared this word with me last week, and I guessed that it meant “instructive”. I was close, but not quite right.
Pedantic \pi-ˈdan-tik\ adjective from Italian pedante
- narrowly, stodgily, and often ostentatiously learned
- unimaginative, dull
- related to a pedant, one who makes a show of knowledge
So basically, a pedantic person is an intellectual a show off, someone who likes to correct.
Oh dear.
I’ve been known to twitch when people use adjectives as adverbs, as in “work careful.” If I find errors in newsletters, especially those from school, I automatically circle them and consider sending them back. If my kids commit a grammar foul, I’m quick to correct them. Clearly I’m at high risk for pedantic behavior.
But I don’t want to be Sheldon Cooper! I love to learn, and I love sharing what I’ve learned, and I hope that never comes across as condescending. Knowledge, about grammar or literature or history or politics, should bring people closer together. I should never use it as a weapon to alienate or criticize.
As 2016 opens, I’m holding up pedantic as a warning to myself, something I will strive NOT to be, on the blog, or IRL.
Word Nerd Workout
Think of a pedantic person or character you know. What’s another adjective to describe him/her, besides “annoying”? And, as fellow word nerds, be honest: do you have pedantic tendencies too?
If you like learning about words, visit Kathy’s Wondrous Words Wednesday meme at her Bermuda Onion Blog.
Here’s to a great 2016!
Heh, heh, heh. This reminds me of a former brother-in-law. He was extremely pedantic, which was all the more annoying because he was so often wrong, misinformed, and opinionated about pointless things.
Example: I babysat for his daughter so he and my sister-in-law could go out to dinner. When they came home, the house was clean, the baby was clean, happy, and asleep. All was well. He looked in the crib, shot me “a pedantic look,” and whipped the socks off the baby’s feet. “She doesn’t sleep in socks,” he said indignantly.
So glad he’s history!
Haha. Yeah pedantic is not something to which I aspire, either. Happy new year!
Same to you, Lisa! It’s gonna be a great one. 🙂
I guess we are all sort of guilty of this at one time or another.
Thanks for making me feel better, Mary Ann. 😉
I often come across this word in novels – I guess pedantic characters are common!
I do like to be correct, but I don’t think I’m a show off…I do have some relatives who are, though. So perhaps I am at risk.
Sometimes pedantic people are also condescending, which is what makes them annoying to others. You are most definitely not condescending!
Whew, Dana, good to know.
Probably most parents are at risk for pedantic behavior 🙂 I am definitely guilty…! I have a pedantic student at the moment and he has NO IDEA (or doesn’t care?) how irritating he is to his classmates (not quite as bad as Sheldon). Good word!
When I have students like that, I find myself spending an inordinate amount of time trying to think of ways to prove to them that they don’t know everything.
This is a different meaning for pedantic from what I thought. I’ve known a few people like this. I’ve usually called them “know-it-alls” or “nit-pickers.”
Yes, I have to admit to having pedantic tendencies from time to time and got in trouble for them at school a time or two.