pedanticallyadv.

?1608 S. Lennard tr. P. Charron Of Wisdome ii. viii. 312 Respect and obey the magistrates and all superiors, but alwaies with a noble spirit,..and not seruilely, pedanticallie, superstitiously, and withall not taking offence.

1631 R. Brathwait Whimzies i. 3 Some stolen shreads he hath raked out from the kennell of other Authors, which most pedantically hee assumes to himselfe.

1673 Bp. S. Ward Apol. Myst. Gospel 44 Gramaticizing pedantically, and criticising spuriously, upon a few Greek Particles.

1776 G. Campbell Philos. of Rhetoric II. iii. i. 186 By every man of sense he would be thought to express himself both pedantically and improperly.

1791 H. L. Piozzi Diary Oct.–Dec. in Thraliana (1942) II. 826 I was bringing in the Ancients as pedantically myself yesterday.

1839 H. Hallam Introd. Lit. Europe III. i. 9 A profusion of learning is scattered all round, but not pedantically or impertinently.

1860 R. W. Emerson Fate in Conduct of Life (London ed.) 15 'Tis frivolous to fix pedantically the date of particular inventions.

1934 C. Lambert Music Ho! iii. 206 Jazz, or to be pedantically accurate, ‘ragtime’,..has suddenly achieved the status of a ‘school’.

2001 Wasafiri Autumn 36/2 One can argue somewhat pedantically that India had not been formally colonised in 1798.