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
(just peeking in)
I see your point, Bauhaus, but I don't have the word.
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
I don't think hairsplitting is exactly right in this context, but it comes close.
bloviating
grandiloquent
euphuistic
k
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.
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.
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
fwiw, I think bloviate is too broad for this use. senators who filibuster are just bloviating.
(to orate verbosely or windily )
huh? AHD defines 'bloviate' thusly:
To discourse at length in a pompous or boastful mannerseems there's an integral element of self-importance -- manifested in euphuistic verbage -- to bloviating.
'course, i'm just feeling argumentative since you slammed my pitiful philosophical knowledge in I&A
<To discourse at length in a pompous or boastful manner>
AHDvs.
<to orate verbosely or windily>
W3oh no! what'll we do now?
I guess, after causing this digression, I'm obligated to come up with an alternate...
()
a wordmonger, through excessive lucubrations, is in danger of becoming known as an ergotist.
-joe (signifying nothing) friday
However, combine bloviate with picayunish, and you've got a the person in question: The person-in-question bloviating picayunishly.
How's zat?
DubDub
Welcome, bowhaus!
And thanks for the intriguing post! Hope you stick around for more!
How about
mendacious?...close, but not quite.
The Only WO'N!
How about a nice simple word: showoff ?
How about a nice simple word v2: Jerk