1592 T. Nashe Pierce Penilesse (Brit. Libr. copy) sig. B4 I was encountred by a neat pedanticall fellow..who thrusting himselfe abruptly into my companie like an Intelligencer, began very earnestly to question with mee about the cause of my discontent.

1595 G. Chapman Ouids Banquet of Sence sig. A2 Obscuritie in affection of words..is pedanticall and childish.

1603 T. North tr. Plutarch Lives (1676) 1003 This banished pedanticall companion Seneca (so did she [sc. Agrippina] qualifie him).

1647 R. Boyle Let. 8 May in Wks. (1772) I. p. xli I am confident..that those elevated spirits will not prove half so costive and pedantical, as the great scholarians of our colleges.

1756 E. Burke Vindic. Nat. Society 30 Without a Pedantical Exactness.

1762 A. Campbell's Instr. to Son (new ed.) vii. 86 I think it pedantical, and unworthy and unhandsome for a nobleman or person of honour to be affectedly excellent in any one [science].

1856 J. A. Froude Hist. Eng. I. iv. 301 Fisher..was weak, superstitious, pedantical;..but he was a singlehearted man.

1872 J. Morley Voltaire ii. 43 She had ridiculed the pedantical women and platonic gallants of the Hôtel Rambouillet as the Jansenists of love.

1954 E. Linklater House of Gair i. v. 97 Is ‘adumbrations’ too pedantical a word?

2000 Hindu (Nexis) 25 Aug. G. S. Mani gave a pedantical exposition of Tyagaraja songs.

1668 Bp. J. Wilkins Ess. Real Char. ii. viii. §2. 204 Narrowness, Pedanticalness, Littleness of Mind.

1622 G. de Malynes Consuetudo 53 A way one Road broad, is called a high-way for passengers Pedanticall.