precious
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See also: Precious
English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
- pretious (obsolete)
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English precious, borrowed from Old French precios (“valuable, costly, precious, beloved, also affected, finical”), from Latin pretiōsus (“of great value, costly, dear, precious”), from pretium (“value, price”); see price.
Pronunciation[edit]
Adjective[edit]
precious (comparative more precious, superlative most precious)
- Of high value or worth.
- 2013 August 16, Polly Toynbee, “Britain's booming birthrate”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 10, page 21:
- People are a good thing, the most precious resource in a rich economy, so the progressive-minded feel. Only misanthropists disagree or the dottier Malthusians who send green-ink tweets deploring any state assistance for child-rearing.
- The crown had many precious gemstones. This building work needs site access, and tell the city council that I don't care about a few lorry tyre ruts across their precious grass verge.
- Regarded with love or tenderness.
- My precious daughter is to marry.
- (derogatory) Treated with too much reverence.
- He spent hours painting the eyes of the portrait, which his fellow artists regarded as a bit precious.
- (derogatory) Contrived to be cute or charming.
- 2012 May 24, Nathan Rabin, “Film: Reviews: Men In Black 3”, in The Onion AV Club:
- In the abstract, Stuhlbarg’s twinkly-eyed sidekick suggests Joe Pesci in Lethal Weapon 2 by way of late-period Robin Williams with an alien twist, but Stuhlbarg makes a character that easily could have come across as precious into a surprisingly palatable, even charming man.
Synonyms[edit]
- (of high value): dear, valuable
- (contrived to charm): saccharine, syrupy, twee
Derived terms[edit]
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
of high value or worth
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regarded with love
contrived to be cute
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Noun[edit]
precious (plural preciouses)
- Someone (or something) who is loved; a darling.
- 1937, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
- “It isn't fair, my precious, is it, to ask us what it's got in its nassty little pocketses?”
- 1909, Mrs. Teignmouth Shore, The Pride of the Graftons (page 57)
- She sat down with the dogs in her lap. "I won't neglect you for any one, will I, my preciouses?"
- 1937, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
Adverb[edit]
precious (not comparable)
- Very; an intensifier.
- There is precious little we can do.
- precious few pictures of him exist
Usage notes[edit]
This adverb is chiefly used before few and little; usage with other adjectives (slight, small, scant) is much more sporadic, and is in any case limited to the semantic field of “little, small, scarce, few”.
Translations[edit]
intensifier — see very
Further reading[edit]
Further reading[edit]
- precious in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- precious in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms borrowed from Old French
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with usage examples
- English derogatory terms
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English adverbs
- English uncomparable adverbs
- English degree adverbs
- English intensifiers
