pædantry

English

Noun

pædantry (countable and uncountable, plural pædantries)

1. Obsolete spelling of pedantry.
   • 1668, E[dward] W[orsley], Protestancy Without Principles, or, Sectaries Vnhappy Fall from Infallibility to Fancy. Laid Forth in Four Discourses by E. W., Antwerp: […] Michael Cnobbaert, page 451:

     And here, were it worth the labour, I could charge my margents with Hebrew enough (borrowed from Alatius) as Sectaries uſually Do Theirs with Greek and Latin, (I know a Little, and ’Tis little enough of that language,) but I Slight ſuch Pædantry, too manifeſt a bragging of Nothing.

   • 1677, “Some Additionals to Mr. Mede’s Life, by One Who Had the Honour and Happiness to Be Intimately Known to Him Many Years”, in The Works of the Pious and Profoundly-Learned Joseph Mede, B. D. Sometime Fellow of Christ’s Colledge in Cambridge. Corrected and Enlarged According to the Author’s Own Manuscripts., London: […] Roger Norton, for Richard Royston, section 2 (Concerning Mr. Mede’s Communicativeness), page XXXVIII:

     All his Diſcourſes (to ſpeak it once for all) were extremely diſtant from any thing that looked like either Levity, or Vanity, or Pædantry.

   • a. 1680, Samuel Butler, Prose Observations, Oxford: at the Clarendon Press, published 1979, →ISBN, page 230:

     But since it is arrivd at soe great perfection, it is despisd, and scornd as Pædantry;

   • a. 1680, Samuel Butler, Satires and Miscellaneous Poetry and Prose, page 165:

     FOR Pædantry is But a Lewd Caprich / Which Pupills Catch of Tutor’s like the Itch; […] From whence the virtuoso-wit of France / Do’s not oppose to knowledg, Ignorance / [But] Pædantry, as th’ Horribler Defect / And Imperfection of the Intellect.

   • 1695, “The Former Defence”, in A Second Defence of the Propositions, by Which the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity Is so Explained, According to the Ancient Fathers, as to Speak It Not Contradictory to Natural Reason. In Answer to a Socinian Manuscript, in a Letter to a Friend. Together, with a Third Defence of Those Propositions, in Answer to the Newly Published Reflexions, Contained in a Pamphlet, Entituled, A Letter to the Reverend Clergy of Both Universities., London: […] B. Aylmer, page 1:

     To paſs by the Conceitedneſs of this latter Phraſe, and the Pædantry of affecting to ſpeak Engliſh in Latin Phraſes, ſound they never ſo untowardly, I may I hope without Offence tell him, that neither are the Sacinians at a perfect Agreement in their Notions: […]

   • 1698, [Robert Ferguson], A View of an Ecclesiastick in His Socks and Buskins: or, A Just Reprimand Given to Mr. Alsop, for his Foppish, Pedantick, Detractive and Petulant Way of Writing, London: […] John Marshall, page 25:

     But omitting his mean and ſilly Pædantries, to expoſe the Vanity that he is guilty of in pretending to Wit, and the Diſgrace he hath done it through the Impropriety, and Impurity of Thought and Language, wherein he Affects to be accounted an Eloquent and a Witty Man.

   • 1723, Robert Wodrow, Analecta: or Materials for a History of Remarkable Providences; Mostly Relating to Scotch Ministers and Christians, volume third, […] the Maitland Club, published 1843, page 15:

      […]; and that he was free both of pædantry and plagiary, his most usefull works left behind him does declare;

   • a. 1770, John Jortin, quoting John Milton, Tracts, Philological, Critical, and Miscellaneous. Consisting of Pieces Many Before Published Separately, Several Annexed to the Works of Learned Friends, and Others Now First Printed from the Author’s Manuscripts., volume I, London: […] T. Bensley; for Benjamin White and Son, published 1790, page 223:

     They urged you with a decree of the ſage and ſevere judges of Athens, and you cite them to appear for certain Paragogical contempts, before a capricious Pædantry of hot-livered Grammarians.

   • 2008 December 13, Graham., “Aerial photography”, in uk.tech.digital-tv (Usenet):

     >> How's your ornithology going? / > What, do you mean my bad feet? / Don't be silly, that would be pædantry.