i Register
In some senses, donnish is marked as UK. Watch for register when choosing this word.
adj
Characteristic of a university don.
The proctor was a gentlemanly, straight-forward looking man of about thirty, not at all donnish, and his address answered to his appearance.
The truth is, unless a man can get the prestige and income of a Don and write donnish books, it’s hardly worth while for him to make a Greek and Latin machine of himself and be able to spin you out pages of the Greek dramatists at any verse you’ll give him as a cue.
Bookish, theoretical and pedantic, as opposed to practical.
The new engineer had a donnish air, and found it difficult to communicate with the workers in the factory.