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doryphore or doriphore - n., a pedantic critic of minor errors, a nit-picker.
Coined in 1952 by Sir Harold Nicolson, who defined it as a “questing prig, who derives intense satisfaction from pointing out the errors of others.” He took it from the French name for the Colorado potato beetle, a considerable crop pest, which came from the then-name for its genus (now called Leptinotarsa decemlineata). The genus came from Greek doruphoros, a spear-carrier, which apparently comes from an American folk name for the insect, the ten-striped spearman.
---L.
Coined in 1952 by Sir Harold Nicolson, who defined it as a “questing prig, who derives intense satisfaction from pointing out the errors of others.” He took it from the French name for the Colorado potato beetle, a considerable crop pest, which came from the then-name for its genus (now called Leptinotarsa decemlineata). The genus came from Greek doruphoros, a spear-carrier, which apparently comes from an American folk name for the insect, the ten-striped spearman.
---L.
