pedantry

pedantry
    n 1: an ostentatious and inappropriate display of learning
    

Pedantry \Ped"ant*ry\, n. [Cf. F. p['e]danterie.]
   The act, character, or manners of a pedant; vain ostentation
   of learning. "This pedantry of quotation." --Cowley.
   [1913 Webster]

         'T is a practice that savors much of pedantry. --Sir T.
                                                  Browne.
   [1913 Webster]
    

46 Moby Thesaurus words for "pedantry":
      bibliolatry, bibliomania, bluestockingism, book learning,
      book madness, bookiness, bookishness, booklore, ceremonialism,
      classical scholarship, classicism, culture, donnishness, elegance,
      eruditeness, erudition, euphemism, euphuism, exquisiteness,
      formalism, formality, goody-goodness, goody-goodyism, humanism,
      humanistic scholarship, intellectualism, intellectuality,
      learnedness, legalism, letters, literacy, overniceness,
      overpreciseness, overrefinement, pedantism, preciosity,
      preciousness, preciseness, precisianism, punctilio,
      punctiliousness, purism, reading, ritualism, scholarship,
      scrupulousness