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bowhaus Offline OP
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I'm looking for a word that describes someone who tends to elaborate or unpack the minutia of a large issue in order to flaunt their knowledge. I'm not sure "pedantic" quite captures this essance. Can anyone come up with anything better?

Thanks


#66185 04/18/02 04:11 PM
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(just peeking in)

I see your point, Bauhaus, but I don't have the word.


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Cliff Claven?


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Dear bowhaus: A very fine challenge. We have all known somebody like this. I'll be talking to myself for hours about this one.

Perhaps a coinage from scholar and orator: "scholorator"
Or perhaps from didactic and dictator: "didactitator"

I ran into "didact" as synonym for "pedagogue" didactorator

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I don't think hairsplitting is exactly right in this context, but it comes close.


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bloviating

grandiloquent

euphuistic


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pettifogger: 2. one who quibbles over trivia.

Not quite what you're looking for, perhaps, because it is more typically to distract than to flaunt.


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sciolist (one with a pretentious attitude of scholarship; superficial knowledgeability.) might work.

or in a more figurative sense:

brummagemer (Cheap and showy; meretricious--Alteration of BIRMINGHAM, England (from the counterfeit coins made there in the 17th century))

or
clinquant Imitation gold leaf; tinsel; glitter.

(all def's courtesy of AHD, via atomica)

FWIW, my first choice would've been bloviator, since it's just such a cool word (hi, hyla!), but someone already mentioned it.









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picayunish could describe someone concerned with trivia.

But I, too, like bloviating to describe the expression of such a person best of all. And, to beat it all, have heard myself bloviating so many times and realized later, with regret, that that was exactly what I'd been doing!

But picayune is a good word for trivial things, and picayunish is a comical adjective form in that you can see part of "p----unish" in it!

Bloviating regrets,
Wordwind


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fwiw, I think bloviate is too broad for this use. senators who filibuster are just bloviating.

(to orate verbosely or windily )

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