1. An ostentatious or inappropriate display of learning that indicates someone who parades his or her academic knowledge: Pedantry is often expressed by a teacher or scholar and involves a presentation of success that is designed to impress people.
2. Etymology: from Middle French pedante, from Italian pedante, “a teacher, a schoolmaster", of uncertain origin, traced by some sources to Latin paedagogans, present participle of paedagogare, "to teach"; from Greek paedagogein "to instruct children."

Pedantry started out as a derivative of pedant, a noun that started out meaning "teacher" but then it indicated "someone who tends to brag about his or her scholarly achievements."

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