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Pedant vs Fastidious - What's the difference?

pedant | fastidious |

As adjectives the difference between pedant and fastidious

is that pedant is pedantic while fastidious is excessively particular, demanding, or fussy about details, especially about tidiness and cleanliness.

As a noun pedant

is schoolmaster.

pedant

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • (archaic) A teacher or schoolmaster.
  • * , vol. 1 ch. 24:
  • I have in my youth oftentimes beene vexed to see a Pedant [tr. pedante''] brought in, in most of Italian comedies, for a vice or sport-maker, and the nicke-name of ''Magister to be of no better signification amongst us.
  • A person who emphasizes his/her knowledge through the use of vocabulary.
  • (label) A person who is overly concerned with formal rules and trivial points of learning.
  • Derived terms

    * pedantic * pedantry

    Usage notes

    * Do not confuse pedant' with '''pendant''' or ' pennant .

    See also

    * (wikipedia "pedant") *

    fastidious

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Excessively particular, demanding, or fussy about details, especially about tidiness and cleanliness.
  • * 2008 , Robert Fisher, Memory Road , [http://books.google.com/books?id=TGyAvuZt5VoC&pg=PA37&dq=his+fastidious+nature+clean&hl=en&sa=X&ei=4WCLUNmDLbPF0AGpmoDgDQ&ved=0CEsQ6AEwBQ]:
  • His fastidious nature had been evident in his careful snipping of a customer's hair and now he guided his pencil with the same adroitness.
  • * 2004 , Maria Osborne Perr, Ravished Wings , [http://books.google.com/books?id=GEno70HQAQgC&pg=PA153&dq=his+fastidious+nature+clean&hl=en&sa=X&ei=4WCLUNmDLbPF0AGpmoDgDQ&ved=0CD8Q6AEwAw]:
  • As she cleaned the room daily, she knew it was against his fastidious nature to bring or have food in his room.
  • * 2003 , Lynsay Sands, Single White Vampire :
  • * He had at first tried to clean up as they ate, his fastidious nature kicking in, but Chris had told him to just stop, he was blocking the TV.
  • Difficult to please; quick to find fault.
  • * 1897 , ,
  • "It's burn[t], M'sieur," said Marie Louise, politely, but decidedly, to the utter confusion of Mr. Billy, who was as mortified as could be at the failure of his dinner to please his fastidious little visitor.
  • * 1881 , ,
  • You're too fastidious, and too indolent, and too rich.

    Synonyms

    * (excessively particular) exacting, fussy, meticulous * See also

    See also

    * finicky