Elliot Richmond

Jim Beam said he snipped the pedantry from a recent post of mine.
Being a pedant, I decided to see if he was using the term correctly.
So I looked it up. Here is a portion of the Wikipedia entry

"Being referred to as a pedant, or pedantic, is generally considered
insulting. However some people take pride in being a pedant,
especially with regard to the use of the English language. In an
attempt to avoid censure, people who wish to make a correction often
preface it with "not wishing to be pedantic, but ..." or "without
being a pedant, ..."

"Pedantry can also be an indication of certain developmental
disorders. In particular those with Left Sided syndrome, or
high-functioning autism, often have behavior characterized by pedantic
speech Those with Asperger's tend to obsess over the minutiae of
subjects, and are prone to giving long detailed expositions, and the
related corrections, and may gravitate to careers in academia or
science where such obsessive attention to detail is often rewarded.

"Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder is also in part
characterized by a form of pedantry that is overly concerned with the
correct following of rules, procedures and practices. Sometimes the
rules that OCPD sufferers obsessively follow are of their own
devising, or are corruptions or re-interpretations of the letter of
actual rules."

Hmmm.... I think I need to do more research.


Elliot Richmond
Itinerant astronomy teacher
Freelance science writer