I have in my youth oftentimes beene vexed to see a Pedant 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.
disapproval If you say that someone is a pedant, you mean that they are too concerned with unimportant details or traditional rules, especially in connection with academic subjects. I am no pedant and avoid being dogmatic concerning English grammar and expression. someone who pays too much attention to rules or to small unimportant details, especially someone who criticizes other people in an extremely annoying way (pédant, from pedante, perhaps from paedagogus; PEDAGOGY)