(n.) One who puts on an air of learning; one who makes a vain display of learning; a pretender to superior knowledge.
Example Sentences:
(1) "Let me be one of 1,057 well-read pedants to let you know that Giovani dos Santos, 'the Mexican Ronaldinho' (last week's O Fiverão ) actually plays for Villarreal and not Málaga.
(2) 7.53pm BST Pedant repellant Style guide: GEORGE: What is Holland?
(3) He said localness remained key to small stations' success, but added that regulation should move away from "outdated" and "pedantic" box-ticking to focus on output rather than input.
(4) The enigmatic patience of the sentences, the pedantic syntax, the peculiar antiquity of the diction, the strange recessed distance of the writing, in which everything seems milky and sub-aqueous, just beyond reach – all of this gives Sebald his particular flavour, so that sometimes it seems that we are reading not a particular writer but an emanation of literature.
(5) For pedants and non-pedants it’s the ultimate horror.
(6) "He found for Max Mosley because he had not engaged in a 'sick Nazi orgy' as the News of the World claimed, though for the life of me that seems an almost surreally pedantic logic as some of the participants were dressed in military-style uniform," Dacre added.
(7) Although some find the distinction pedantic, it is useful to reserve the term hypoglycaemia for this biochemical state, and neuroglycopenia for the clinical syndrome that results.
(8) They thought he was cool, smart without being pedantic, and seemed to have his act together.
(9) The Finns were pretty cool; the Swedes, pedantic but resigned; the Danes did get a little fighty; the Icelanders were irritated not to have been given more attention; but the Norwegians, boy, they were not happy.
(10) Photograph: Alamy If you aren’t put off by a high density of boutique moustaches and pedantic coffee connoisseurs, Stoneybatter is a worthwhile deviation from Temple Bar, Grafton Street and the other well-trodden tourist zones.
(11) 6.40pm BST An early email from Zachary Gomperts-Mitchelson "Now, I know you said arguably, and trying, admittedly not that hard, to avoid sounding like an insufferable pedant, but surly the biggest game in Dortmund's history has got to be the Champions League final against Juventus that they won in 1996?"
(12) 9 None sense A sure sign of a pedant is that, under the impression that none is an abbreviation of not one, they will insist on saying things like "none of them has turned up".
(13) "Let me completely fail to avoid sounding like an insufferable pedant by saying that Zachary Gomperts-Mitchelson succintly said what we were all thinking, except that Dortmund won the Champions' League in 1997, not 1996," he writes.
(14) Furthermore, the ministerial code is pedantically explicit about the minister's total accountability for all the special adviser's actions.
(15) 28 mins: Look at the pedantic dolts I have to deal with: "So which bit of '4 mins ... 7mins ... 10 mins' is 'minute-by-minute' commentary, exactly?"
(16) There are visitors, presents, pedantic calls to NHS Direct – fatherhood's getting started!
(17) The magistrate, who paid “pedantic” and “meticulous” attention to detail, had definitely ordered weekend-only access, Treverton said.
(18) What made their embarrassment so irresistible to the more pedantic of their fellow engineers, who rushed in to make judgments about what had happened, was that they seemed to have brought it on themselves.
(19) The particle "up" is an intransitive preposition and does not require an object, so even the most pedantic of pedants would have no objection to a phrase like "This is pedantry with which I will not put up."
(20) When I’ve said this before on Twitter, people get into a pedantic spin about whether or not Jews are a race or a religion, but that’s irrelevant: they are considered a race by racists.
Pennant
Definition:
(n.) A small flag; a pennon. The narrow, / long, pennant (called also whip or coach whip) is a long, narrow piece of bunting, carried at the masthead of a government vessel in commission. The board pennant is an oblong, nearly square flag, carried at the masthead of a commodore's vessel.
(n.) A rope or strap to which a purchase is hooked.
Example Sentences:
(1) However, insiders said that late on Friday afternoon Pennant-Rea contacted Darcey to say they were not convinced that a seven-day operation for the Times and Sunday Times was off the table and would not therefore be approving Witherow and Ivens's appointments.
(2) And imagine handing one of those pennants over, shaking hands just before leading your country into a World Cup final!
(3) The six directors include Rupert Pennant-Rea, a former editor of the Economist and deputy governor of the Bank of England; Stephen Grabiner, a venture capitalist who previously worked in the Telegraph's commercial department; and Veronica Wadley, former editor of the London Evening Standard and ex-deputy editor of the Daily Mail.
(4) A History of Bradford City AFC in Objects , a new book by lifelong supporter John Dewhirst, appears not much more promising than a compulsive collection of memorabilia – but it is much more than the sum of its badges, pennants and other ephemera which the author admits his wife and three daughters would eagerly de-clutter tomorrow.
(5) This hatred is exacerbated when the Cards crush you season after season of course, to the tune of 19 pennants and 11 World Series titles.
(6) Pennant-Rea is also a former editor of the Economist, while Lord Marlesford is a former journalist on the same magazine.
(7) Pennant believes that Clarkson's apology does not address the root of the problem at the corporation.
(8) Pennant said Clarkson's apology did not address the diversity problem at the BBC.
(9) Despite mounting pressure on the BBC to sack Clarkson, Pennant is unconvinced that such a "kneejerk" move is the right response.
(10) Jon Walters and Kenwyne Jones tried to test the new goalkeeper with long shots early in the game, though both flew harmlessly wide and Amos dealt with his first cross from Jermaine Pennant comfortably enough.
(11) The wingers weren't getting enough crosses in early on, but Pennant's delivery for the second goal was excellent.
(12) Author and publisher Cass Pennant is a former member of the InterCity Firm.
(13) The Giants won NLCS Game Seven 9-0, powered by a five-run third inning, to win the National League pennant.
(14) Perry Boys Abroad, by Ian Hough, has been released by Pennant Publishing
(15) Simone Pennant, the founder of the The TV Collective, which helps run Henry's campaign, said such "incidents will keep happening" unless the BBC hires more black and Asian staff on Top Gear and its other shows.
(16) Psilotornus confertus Machalska, 1974 was found in the water-shrew Neomys fodiens Pennant, 1771 in the Oriental Pyrenean Mountains.
(17) In France, the larval forms (daughter sporocysts, cercariae and metacercariae) of M. oocysta develop in Hydrobia ulvae Pennant living on Norman coasts of the Channel; they are described again.
(18) However, it is understood that there is behind-the-scenes contact between the Times independent directors and News Corp executives – with Mike Darcey, the chief executive of News International, in contact with Rupert Pennant-Rea, one of the independent directors.
(19) "Our real role is to ensure that the editors of the Times and Sunday Times are able to run their newspapers according to their own judgments and with the resources adequate to that task", according to the leader of Wapping's "independent national directors", Rupert Pennant-Rea.
(20) Mike Darcey has a scheduled meeting next month with the directors but is expected to talk to the de facto chairman of the directors, former deputy Bank of England governor Rupert Pennant-Rea, in the coming days to see if they can establish a way of winning their approval for John Witherow and Martin Ivens, who were announced as "acting editors" of the Times and Sunday Times, respectively late on Friday.