peeververein

English

Etymology

Coined by American journalist and copyeditor John McIntyre in 2012, from peever + German Verein (“association, club, society”).

Noun

peeververein pl (plural only)

1. (neologism, derogatory) People obsessed with upholding and enforcing the usage of "correct" English; militant prescriptivists.
   • 2012 June 5, John E. McIntyre, “Unmourned: The Queen's English Society”, in The Baltimore Sun‎^[1], Baltimore, M.D.: Tribune Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-06-22:

     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.

   • 2013 August 13, Stilgherrian, “'Literally' purists literally belong in the stone age”, in ABC News (Australia)‎^[2], archived from the original on 2022-07-05:

     Unfortunately, these self-styled grammar lovers form no phalanx of gladiators defending our language from modern barbarians. They're simply simple linguitard peeververein - to build upon the delightful word coined by The Baltimore Sun's John E McIntyre meaning, in bastard German, "band of peevers" - roaming the Twittersphere in vast, dull cud-munching herds.

   • 2017, Kory Stamper, Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries, New York, N.Y.: Pantheon Books, →ISBN, page 132:

     But write <they enjoy working on their car> and the peeververein will descend to bewail your use of the singular "they," though it's not exactly transparently singular here.

   • 2020 April, Jonathan I. Tietz, “On Lawyers and Copy Editors”, in Michigan Law Review, volume 118, number 6, Ann Arbor, M.I.: University of Michigan Law School, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1311:

     [Benjamin] Dreyer is not entirely consistent: He simultaneously cautions the reader to avoid too many parenthetical asides (to avoid "seem[ing] like a dandy in a Restoration comedy stepping down to the footlights . . . to confidentially address the audience") while thoroughly peppering his work with whiplash-inducing discursive footnotes. He simultaneously dismisses appeals to historical practice used in defense of the singular "they" yet wields historical use against uptight peeververein, as with the verb "enthuse". But neither is English consistent.

   • 2022 February 3, Benjamin Dreyer, “It’s pointless to yearn for a post-pandemic return to normalcy. Or is it normality?”, in The Washington Post‎^[3], Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 3 February 2022:

     The word-peevers of the era — the peeververein, to borrow a splendid coinage from John E. McIntyre, retired head of the copy desk at the Baltimore Sun — descended on Harding's usage like that ton of bricks you've been warned about.