dryasdust

n.
A dull, pedantic speaker or writer.

[After Dr. Jonas Dryasdust, a fictitious character to whom Sir Walter Scott dedicated some of his novels.]

dryasdust dry'as·dust' adj.

(DRY-az-dust)

adjective
Extremely dull, dry, or boring.

Etymology
After Jonas Dryasdust, a fictitious person to whom Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) dedicated some of his novels

At the beginning of the novel Ivanhoe, Sir Walter Scott writes:
DEDICATORY EPISTLE TO THE REV. DR. DRYASDUST, F.A.S.
Dr. Dryasdust however was the writer's own creation. He pretends to dedicate the novel to him for supplying him with dry historical details. Since then the term is used to describe a person devoted to dry, uninteresting details. Dryasdust -- dry as dust --- is obviously a charactonym.

Usage
"The report is written in the [Congressional Budget Office]'s dryasdust style, but for anyone with a tolerance for numbers and an interest in policy, it is as scary as a Stephen King novel." — N. Gregory Mankiw; Government Debt: A Horror Story; Fortune (New York); Aug 3, 1998.

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Dull, boring, as in This text is dry as dust; it's putting me to sleep. [c. 1500]

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[coined by Sir Walter Scott]  boring; pedantic