pedantic

adj.
Characterized by a narrow, often ostentatious concern for book learning and formal rules: a pedantic attention to details.

pedantically pe·dan'ti·cal·ly adv.

SYNONYMS   pedantic, academic, bookish, donnish, scholastic. These adjectives mean marked by a narrow, often tiresome focus on or display of learning and especially its trivial aspects: a pedantic writing style; an academic insistence on precision; a bookish vocabulary; donnish refinement of speech; scholastic and excessively subtle reasoning.

(pe-DAN-tik)

adjective
Characterized by a narrow, often ostentatious concern for book learning and formal rules.

Etymology
French pedant, or Italian pedante (French, from Italian), possibly from Vulgar Latin *paedens, -paedent-, present participle of -paedere, to instruct, probably from Greek paiduein, from pais, paid-, child + -ic.

Usage
"Mr Updike uses different names for his characters... But the name changes are jarring, and their flavour is pedantic, as if Mr Updike simply wants credit for doing his homework." — Witty, wise, then weary, Economist, Feb 19, 2000.

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adjective

Characterized by a narrow concern for book learning and formal rules, without knowledge or experience of practical matters: academic, bookish, donnish, formalistic, inkhorn, literary, pedantical, scholastic. See attitude/good attitude/bad attitude/neutral attitude, flexible/rigid, teach/learn.

adj

Definition: bookish, precise
Antonyms: imprecise, informal

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IN BRIEF: Bookish; showing off learning.

Nothing is as peevish and pedantic as men's judgments of one another. — Desiderius Erasmus (1469-1536)