Talk:Pedant/Archive 1

I agree with Katherine Shaw (What's point in having a page that says "There is no article"?). This is why I have restarted this article in the form of a stub. Could we give it some time to develop into a longer article? For example, are there any "famous" pedants among artists etc.? Or could we deal with the topic from a psychological point of view? (You see, I'm thinking of things that go far beyond the limits of Wiktionary.) Any suggestions? <KF> 11:10, Nov 27, 2004 (UTC) Boy it would be swell if we could have a good article like that about pedants. I feel pedants are greatly misunderstood. Wasn't Galileo a a pedant? He was willing to defy the Inquisition over what at his time might have been considered a tiny and societally unacceptable point. Note the distinction between social and societal... User:Pedant 18:53, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Does anyone else find this article inherently ironically funny? 71.146.176.171 15:24, 28 December 2006 (UTC) -yeah i do see #4 below: —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.203.175.175 (talk) 19:22, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

So do I, but that doesn't make it valueless or stop me from contributing to it. Thnidu (talk) 03:25, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

I can find no reference to 'pedantess' being the corresponding female noun. Can anyone verify this? Professor Aronnax 09:02, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

It's in the OED under "pedant, n. and adj.", under the heading "Derivatives":

pedantess n. rare Obs. a female pedant.

Thnidu (talk) 03:23, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

So you don't like pedants

I realize that the words pedant and pedantry carry a negative connotation, but sections of this article assume such a discriminatory POV that it becomes a vindictive assault. Ringbang 13:15, 27 July 2005 (UTC)

No, no, some of my best friends are pedants. I'm a little pedantic myself. Being pedantic is often a good quality, for example in editing encyclopedias. Feel free to edit for improvement, it could use some additional input. MickWest 17:54, 27 July 2005 (UTC)

I think we should start a sister project of Wikipedia, called Wikipedant. It would consist of quizzes for each corresponding Wikipedia topic (or, more likely, tied to a dated revision of the Wikipedia page, so that the quiz would align with specific content). In addition to creating new quizzes, users could request a random Wikipedia page for which there exists a Wikipedant quiz, and after reviewing the Wikipedia material, take the quiz. Cumulative scores on Wikipedant quizzes can be made public and users can proudly advertise their Wikipedant scores on their own user page or blog or whatever. Why, we could change the connotation of pedant to mean something positive! Gjbloom 18:44, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

"we could change the connotation of pedant to mean something positive!"

Here! Here!, Bravo, Bravo! User:Pedant 09:51, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

It's "hear, hear". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:2B88:2:1:0:0:22B:1 (talk) 06:52, 29 August 2012 (UTC)

Move to Wikitionary

This article belongs in wiktionary, not wikipedia.

if it should stay in wikipedia, it should be organized by the common usage of the term first and later the actual terminology and where the word comes from (198.64.15.139 23:56, 31 January 2007 (UTC))

I agree with 198.64.15.139 on this.   — Jeff G. (talk|contribs) 18:16, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

sucking eggs??

Can anyone explain to me why "Teaching Grandma to suck eggs" redirects to this page? I was curious as to whether Wikipedia could explain this idiom to me, and a search revealed that page, which redirects to "pedant." I don't see the relationship at all. Can anyone give a reason that this redirect shouldn't be deleted? Malenkylizards 10:02, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Good point, and exactly the reason I ended up here. Since my understanding of the phrase matches that from IdiomSite:

Don't try to teach your Grandma to suck eggs 
       You shouldn't teach anyone who knows alot more than you do.

...it suggests that this redirect is inappropriate. However, rather than simply deleting it, it should be re-redirected to somewhere that DOES describe the phrase appropriately.

EdJogg 09:55, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

uhhh.. did a pedant edit this article?

This article is overly wordy, and that's coming from someone who is wordy on a regular basis. Like:

"A pedant, or pædant…" -or what? C’mon, no one spells it that way, most people have no idea how to make ligatures on their keyboard or with their hand

the whole opening and all the old english: pædagogare? since when is there an etymology of every entry?

That's Latin, not Old English. Thnidu (talk) 03:28, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

"but evidence is wanting" -evidence can't be wanting in this context, more properly it would be "it is wanting of evidence".. it looks like someone used MS Word to do a synonym lookup, even as a personification that doesn't work... it should read: "... and it has been suggested by some that... but for lack of evidence, they are left wanting." -but seriously, who talks like that, apparently even the person who wrote it couldn't even form the idea right.

No, you are just unaware of this usage, which is more common in the UK than in the US. Personification has nothing to do with it. "Wanting" in this sense = "lacking", and the sentence makes perfect sense: = "there's no evidence, or inadequate evidence". Thnidu (talk) 03:28, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

I think an additional definition ought to include the idea that the word is frequently and inappropriately used as an epithet by impatient and ignorant people unwilling to discover that there are subtleties to communication and it's meanings that are important, and frequently the person rushing with the charge of "pedant" isn't qualified to make the decision on whether or not the attention to detail is necessary. Consider how common the word is used, how frequently it is inappropriately used, and by whom. One must know MORE than the pedant in order to make the determination.

How often does that happen ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.137.251.249 (talk) 04:31, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

"someone overly concerned with minutiae and detail"? more old english at least this one isn't deprecated, but minutiae (or "small details") followed by detail, is redundant "concerned with small [insignificant] details and detail"... seriously, if you just HAVE to write such obscure things, at least make sure you're using them right...

the rest of the article seems to be alright, but it would seem that a pedant has vandalized your opening...lol 198.203.175.175 19:19, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

I beg to differ. The word "minutiae" is still in common use. 24.205.46.147 (talk) 13:46, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

Quotes?

Who is Garty Vicksters? If he's not notable enough to have a page on Wikipedia -- or even to be referenced on the internet anywhere other than this page and mirrors of it -- is he notable enough to quote? Does he run a two-person company or a 1000-person company? Does he even run the company, or is he, for example, in charge of PR, where that statement might be entirely reasonable? 66.183.117.156 (talk) 21:54, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

I removed this quote. --Mkilly (talk) 02:48, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

Peter Griffin quote

# "Well Lois, as a matter of fact, I find this meatloaf rather shallow and pedantic"-Peter Griffin

Normally, I'm not opposed to the noting of pop culture references in articles. However, this article is about the word and the usage of it, in this case is a quote that isn't even using the word properly an appropriate thing to add in? If there's no objections, it should be removed.69.206.173.116 (talk) 06:29, 10 August 2009 (UTC)

Desambiguation

By this article , i'm a pedant who write in spanish. Inteasd , by the definition of "pedante" sinonim of "pedant" proportionated bhy the R.A.E(Real academia española), a pedant is a persona who flaunts his knowledge, amiss. So , this article is wrong or the that definition is wrong.

I suggest to improve this article.

Definition of "pedante" : http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltGUIBusUsual?TIPO_HTML=2&TIPO_BUS=3&LEMA=Pedante —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.222.231.53 (talk) 13:49, 10 May 2010 (UTC)

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