Last time, we defined the pedant as someone who ostentatiously and rather obtrusively takes pains with trifles — the type of person who takes the trouble to correct others. My late friend John Simon used to argue that it’s the public duty of every well-educated person to correct those who blunder linguistically, and I saw him do it on occasion. But when, at a wedding together, he and I heard someone say, “I can’t hardly stand this heat,” Simon stayed mum. Later, as I chuckled over his hypocrisy, he told me that he had refined his position: you don’t correct the incorrigible.
In any event, his general position is one that most people will find untenable. It’s considered rude to go around correcting people.
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