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preciosity

noun
/ˌpɹɛʃiˈɒsəti/UK/ˌpɹɛʃiˈɑsəti/US

Etymology

From Middle English preciosite, from Middle French preciosité, from Latin pretiōsitās (“great value; high price”).

  1. derived from pretiōsitās — “great value; high price”
  2. derived from preciosité
  3. inherited from preciosite

Definitions

  1. The quality of being overly refined in an affected way (often used to describe speech or…

    The quality of being overly refined in an affected way (often used to describe speech or writing, but also visual art and dress).

    • 1902, R. Langton Douglas, A History of Siena, New York: E.P. Dutton, Chapter 18, p. 385, [Italian renaissance painter Neroccio] had the fastidiousness, the preciosity, the love of archaisms, of your true decadent.
    • It is […] a section of society where everybody talks and poses, where pedantry masquerades as knowledge, sentimentality as sentiment, and preciosity as delicacy and refinement;

  2. An instance of preciosity

    An instance of preciosity; something that is overly refined in an affected way.

    • “O Father Master, is it possible! (exclaimed the Beneficiary ready to roll about the floor with laughing) is it possible that such preciosities are printed! […]”
    • 1913, John Hay Beith (as Ian Hay), Happy-Go-Lucky, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Book 3, Chapter 12, p. 151, “Yes, mother mine,” she replied. (Sylvia was rather addicted to little preciosities of this kind.)
    • A book like Tropic of Cancer, published at such a time, must be either a tedious preciosity or something unusual, and I think a majority of the people who have read it would agree that it is not the first.

  3. The quality of being precious (of high value or worth).

    • I must be forc’d to say somewhat of Margarites [i.e. pearls] themselves, and I am affraid I shall rather be struck with the deepest amazement and confusion, than be able to expresse their unspeakable worth and preciosity.
    • [The figurehead] was covered up with tow and sacking and so hidden under pretence of safety that none might discover the secret of its intrinsic preciosity.
    • He did not love the vulger herd, but he knew that his own vulgarity would be greater if he forbade it ingress, and that it was not by preciosity that he would attain to the intimate spirit of the dell.
  4. ›+ 1 more definition

    1. Something of high value or worth.

      • Their poor bits of preciosities and heirlooms they have with them; made up in succinct bundles, stowed on ticketed baggage-wains: […]

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for preciosity. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA