pedantry

Founding-era definition · Webster's 1828 American Dictionary

PED'ANTRY, noun Vain ostentation of learning; a boastful display of knowledge of any kind. Horace has enticed me into this pedantry of quotation. Pedantry is the unseasonable ostentation of learning.
Source: Webster's 1828 American Dictionary ↗ · public-domain · returned verbatim, no AI

More founding-era words: liberty · virtue · republic · justice · providence · commerce · militia · arms · prudence · establishment · religion · usurpation · tyranny · citizen · unalienable · sovereign