dryasdust means boring and pedantic in speech or writing. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 91 out of 100.
Why “dryasdust” is a great word
DRYASDUST — [Adjective, Noun] Boring and pedantic in speech or writing; a dull, pedantic speaker or writer. From the fictitious character Dr. Jonas Dryasdust, created by Sir Walter Scott in the prefaces to his novels, from the phrase 'dry as dust'. Unlike pedantic (which spotlights an over-scrupulous adherence to rules) or tedious (which chronicles a wearying length), dryasdust connotes a specific antiquarian aridity. It is the scent of crumbling vellum in a sunless archive, the drone of a lecture on fourteenth-century parish boundary disputes, the feel of chalk-dust settling on a forgotten lectern—a testament to the peculiar misery of knowledge that has outlived its joy.
Etymology
From the fictitious character Jonas Dryasdust, created by Sir Walter Scott, from dry as dust.
adj
- Boring and pedantic in speech or writing.“[…] Casaubon, the dryasdust scholar in Middlemarch, is said to woo his bride with a “frigid rhetoric . . . as sincere as the bark of a dog, or the cawing of an amorous rook.””
noun
- A dull, boring or pedantic speaker or writer.“[…] how can Dryasdust interpret such things, the dark chaotic dullard, who knows the meaning of nothing cosmic or noble, nor ever will know?”