Oh, jeez, it’s me in this word confusion didactic versus pedantic. I feel a moral obligation to lecture writers on their word choices, spelling, and punctuation so that their readers will learn proper English while enjoying the story. Yep, that also means I’m overly concerned with minute details. And I have a hard time accepting some of the changes in comma and quotation mark usage! Amongst other changes.
Sigh . . .
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.
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| Didactic | Pedantic |
|---|---|
All You Need is Less by Etienne Girardet is under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license, via Unsplash. — Yeah, another moral lesson. |
Mathematics is in the public domain, via RawPixel. — No teacher can ever be too pedantic when it comes to math. |
| Part of Grammar: | |
| Adjective | Adjective |
Intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive
Instructive Teaching or intending to teach a moral lesson. |
Ostentatious in one’s learning
Overly concerned with minute details or formalisms, especially in teaching |
| Examples: | |
| It was a didactic novel that set out to expose social injustice.
He had a slow-paced, didactic mode of lecturing. “Didactic poetry, which was not regarded as a separate genre by either Greek or Roman theorists, embraces a number of poetic works (usually in hexameters) which aim to instruct the reader in a particular subject-matter, be it science, philosophy, hunting, farming, love, or some other art or craft” (Schiesaro). She was such a boring, didactic speaker. |
Many of the essays are long, dense, and too pedantic to hold great appeal.
“From included streaming options to a few inches in diagonal length, shopping for a new TV can be a bit pedantic” (Silver). “The pedantic scholars among us might wonder if the book does its job” (Moss). “The pedantic type might note that Hippolytus makes no prophetic mention of the cinema or the Internet” (Moss, “St”). |
| Derivatives: | |
| Adjective: nondidactic Adverb: didactically, nondidactically Noun: didacticism, didactics |
Adjective: semipedantic, semipedantical Adverb: pedantically Noun: pedant, pedanticalness, pedantry |
| History of the Word: | |
| Mid-17th century from the Greek didaktikos, from didaskein meaning teach. | Late 16th century is from the French pédant, from the Italian pedante, perhaps from the first element of the Latin paedogogus (see pedagogue). |
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.
Resources for Didactic versus Pedantic
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Apple Dictionary.com
Dictionary.com: didactic, pedantic
Moss, Candida. “Are You There, Nobody? It’s Me, Margaret.” The Daily Beast. 12 Oct 2014. Web. 22 Mar 2023. <http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/10/12/are-you-there-nobody-it-s-me-margaret.html>.
⸻. “St Hippolytus’ Careers Christians Should Never Have.” The Daily Beast. 4 May 2014. Web. 22 Mar 2023. <https://www.thedailybeast.com/st-hippolytus-careers-christians-should-never-have?source=dictionary>.
Schiesaro, Alessandro. “Didactic Poetry.” Oxford Classical Dictionary. 22 Dec 2015. Web. 22 Mar 2023. <https://bit.ly/3lBXowg>.
Silver, Curtis. “The Best 70-inch TVs of 2022.” Popular Science. 2 June 2022. Web. 22 Mar 2023. <https://www.popsci.com/reviews/best-70-inch-tvs/>.
Pinterest Photo Credits:
1293 sn1 by Studio TDES is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Flickr.
