Basically, its where one uses words of unnecessary length and formality in either regard to a following of the rules to the minute details, or to show off. A third option, one not explained in the wiki for it, is the fact that it can be used for dry humor. Using difficult words in a normal, average day conversing can be humorous, especially if its used in such a way as to make sarcasm or the condescending factor of said use of language extremely apparent. Much like using "phalanges" in this next sentence makes it much more comedic then if "fingers" was used.
"My armpits would be very much the happier pair if all intruding phalanges were removed, thank you very much."And so you can see, pedantry can be used as a form of comedic relief, if handled carefully. Otherwise you'll end up just being a bore, and no one will want to read what you write. Or listen to you speak. Or any other form of communication possible where they would have to listen to you babble like a maniac, with no real meaning behind it except to sound fancy. Hurray vocabularies, neh?
Now, onto the purpose of why I'm explaining this to you. Its so that later on, when I delve into some really heavy pedantic use, you'll fully understand what I'm doing, what to call it, and how to either; A) Appreciate it more, and realize the slight humor behind its use, or B) Make fun of it more appropriately, now knowing what type of condescending jerk uses it. All up too you, although I personally would hope you would go with option A. Just my personal opinion and hope...
So! Moving on!
I would hope by now, that if you've been reading this, you know that I went to prom last weekend. And that we ate at the cheesecake factory (By the way, their popcorn shrimp and four cheese pasta with chicken is delicious. And big enough to be easily split between two people and still have leftovers) which was amazing. But sadly, as I was eating the popcorn shrimp, I realized how long it had been since I last dined on any form of calamari. Calamari, in case you didn't know, is deep fried squid, and it is delicious. Amazingly so. And its been... a good month or so since I've had any, and even then, the place I was at that had some, the calamari served wasn't that well prepared. So that got me thinking... I haven't had anything along those lines for a while now. No calamari, no octopode, no salt water eel on rice, nothing! And I'm sorta feeling deprived... although my boss Shirley did give me some crab meat sushi rolls the other day, so that was nice.
See what I did there? I used octopode! Now, it is a real word. If you trying using it in word or something like that, your spell check will most likely inform you that I am wrong, that it is not a real word, and that you would be better off using something different, such as Antipodes or Doctorow. Neither of which I know the meaning of currently, but hey, thats why we love google and wikipedia.
-humming whilst Keegan googles those two terms-
Ok, so antipodes is the place exactly opposite across the diameter of the Earth from any given point. So if I'm at one spot, the Antipodes of where I am is the precise same spot on the other side of the world. Nifty, no?
And as for Doctorow, he is either a Canadian blogger, or an American author. Take your pic. It is a last name, obviously well know enough to receive place in the spell check dictionary.
Back to octopode! Anyways, that is the third plural form of octopus. Bonus brownie points if you had it guessed before I told you. Since octopus is actually Greek, Octopi is an accepted misspelling. That is how you would spell it, if its base was Latin, but then again, if we were speaking Latin, Octopus would actually be Octopes, with the plural being Octopedes, but since we have ancient Greek to thank for the name, it is Octopus. But since its a common enough mistake, Octopi has managed to secure a place as a definition of plural octopus. And finally, we have Octopuses, which is the first plural form (and the most common) of octopus. It's the one all of you have probably heard and seen, and its in all the dictionaries, whereas octopi is commonly included, Octopode is rarely seen unless you're looking for it.
In fact, a little info on the plural forms of Octopus, just so you can see where I came across the term Pedantic.
Talking of Octopode, did you know that often you can track the students of Evergreen by the clouds of cannabis produced smoke wafting about? Much like an octopus can leave a trail of ink behind it, the students at Evergreen leave trails of pot-smoke behind them as they go from class to class, but instead of a defense mechanism, for the Evergreen student in its natural environment, its more of a welcome, a greeting, and a mapping system, allowing them to follow eachother and congregate into larger masses, where the smokers find refuge in each others presences, and generally loaf about, ignoring schoolwork like usual, and devising more methods to get the school to allow them more freedom, meanwhile plotting peace rallies and painting Volkswagen bus's bright neon colors in swirling patterns.
Now that I'm done with that whole thing, I would just like to say that I am very, very happy I was able to make it to choir practice this evening. It's been a while since I've been to a rehearsal practice for our production that we're putting on, Savior of the World, its a production about Jesus and parts of his life and such. Really amazing, love the music, and also I'm in it, so whats there not too like about it? Also in it is Zak, Christy, and Jenelle, all of who are amazing people. So come see it! Comment or figure out a way to get ahold of me for tickets. They're free, but we have limited seating, so we're working on a ticket system here.
Anyways, was able to be there for the whole practice with the actual stage set up, usually I can only make it to the singing practices, so it was nice learning what I get to do other then sing.
And I believe I'll leave it off there, so goodnight!
