English Explanatory Dictionary

doryphore

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A petty pedant, a person who complains about minor mistakes.

Word forms

doryphore doryphores doriphore

Etymology

A modification of doriphore, borrowed from French doryphore (“Colorado beetle”) by Harold Nicolson in 1952, presumably under the influence of the various senses of pest. The French term was a translation of the New Latin genus Doryphora, itself from Ancient Greek δορυφόρος (doruphóros, “lance-bearing; lance-bearer”).

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