Peeververein
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 People obsessed with upholding and enforcing the usage of "correct" English; militant prescriptivists. derogatory, neologism, plural, plural-only
"The Independent reports that at the society's annual meeting, with an attendance of twenty-two, its chairman, Rhea Williams, announced, "Despite the sending out of a request for nominations for chairman, vice-chairman, administrator, web master, and membership secretary no one came forward to fill any role." […] This does not, of course, mean that the Peeververein will also melt away or lack outlets."
Example
More examples"The Independent reports that at the society's annual meeting, with an attendance of twenty-two, its chairman, Rhea Williams, announced, "Despite the sending out of a request for nominations for chairman, vice-chairman, administrator, web master, and membership secretary no one came forward to fill any role." […] This does not, of course, mean that the Peeververein will also melt away or lack outlets."
Etymology
Coined by American journalist and copy editor John McIntyre in 2012, from peeve + -er + German Verein (“association, club, society”).
More for "peeververein"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.