A pedant (/ˈpɛd.ənt/ PED-ent) is a person who is excessively concerned with formalism, accuracy and precision, or one who makes an ostentatious and arrogant show of learning.
The English language word pedant comes from the French pédant (used in 1566 in Darme & Hatzfeldster's Dictionnaire général de la langue française) or its older mid-15th century Italian source pedante, 'teacher, schoolmaster'.[1][2] (Compare the Spanish pedante.[3]) The origin of the Italian pedante is uncertain, but several dictionaries suggest that it was contracted from the medieval Latin pædagogans, present participle of pædagogare, 'to act as pedagogue, to teach' (Du Cange)[4] (see pedagogy).[5][6] The Latin word is derived from Greek παιδαγωγός, paidagōgós, παιδ- 'child' + ἀγειν 'to lead', which originally referred to a slave who escorted children to and from school but later meant "a source of instruction or guidance".[7][8]