Pedantic vs Picayune - What's the difference?
pedantic | picayune |
Like a pedant, overly concerned with formal rules and trivial points of learning.
Being showy of one’s knowledge, often in a boring manner.
Being finicky or fastidious, especially with language.
Petty, trivial; of little consequence; small and of little importance; picayunish;
* 2005 , New York Times , November 17, 2005
something not worth arguing about.
an argument, fact, corner case, or other issue raised (often intentionally) that distracts from a larger issue at hand or does not change a primary supposition, outcome, postulate, premise, conclusion, hypothesis, judgment or recommendation;
small-minded: being childishly spiteful, tending to go on about unimportant things.
(US, archaic) A small coin of the value of six and a quarter cents; a fippenny bit.
A five-cent piece.
Something of very little value; a trifle: not worth a picayune.
As adjectives the difference between pedantic and picayune
is that pedantic is like a pedant, overly concerned with formal rules and trivial points of learning while picayune is petty, trivial; of little consequence; small and of little importance; picayunish.As a noun picayune is
a small coin of the value of six and a quarter cents; a fippenny bit.pedantic
English
Alternative forms
* pedantick (obsolete)Adjective
(en adjective)- "On the contrary, the fall was perfectly safe; it was the impact with the ground that killed him".
Synonyms
* (like a pedant) anal-retentive, fussy, nit-picky * (knowledge-peacock) (sometimes applicable) nit-picky, ostentatious, pedagogical, pretentious * (linguistically affected) fussy, nit-picky * See alsoExternal links
* *Anagrams
*picayune
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- "It might seem like a picayune matter, akin to the rivalry in the film "Monty Python's Life of Brian" between the Judean People's Front, the Judean Popular People's Front and the People's Front of Judea."