English Explanatory Dictionary

language lawyer

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A pedant, someone overly focused on semantics.
  2. An expert of a programming language who is extremely well-versed in its specification.
verb
  1. To behave in a lawyer-like way and discuss semantic differences pedantically. To lawyer over language.

Word forms

language lawyer language lawyers language lawyering language lawyered language-lawyer

Etymology

Compound of language + lawyer. Defined in the Jargon File. The definition is often cited verbatim as: A language lawyer is distinguished by the ability to show you the five sentences scattered through a 200-plus-page manual that together imply the answer to your question “if only you had thought to look there”.

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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