preciosity

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌpɹɛʃiˈɒsəti/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌpɹɛʃiˈɑsəti/

Noun

preciosity (countable and uncountable, plural preciosities)

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

   Synonyms: affectation, fastidiousness

   • 1902, R. Langton Douglas, A History of Siena, New York: E.P. Dutton, Chapter 18, p. 385,^[1]

     [Italian renaissance painter Neroccio] had the fastidiousness, the preciosity, the love of archaisms, of your true decadent.

   • 1914, Edouard Pailleron, translated by Barrett H. Clark and Hilmar Baukhage, The Art of Being Bored‎^[2], New York: Samuel French, act I, page 6:

     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;

   • 1916, John Cowper Powys, “Oscar Wilde” in Suspended Judgments, New York: G. Arnold Shaw, p. 416,^[3]

     The style of Wilde is one of the simplest in existence, but its simplicity is the very apex and consummation of the artificial. He uses Biblical language with that self-conscious preciosity—like the movements of a person walking on tiptoe in the presence of the dead—which is so different from the sturdy directness of Bunyan or the restrained rhetoric of the Church of England prayers.

   • 1926, Edgar Wallace, chapter 10, in The Black Abbot‎^[4], New York: A.L. Burt, page 44:

     He was dressed very well and carefully, she thought, and wondered whether Arthur’s preciosity in the matter of clothing influenced his staff.

2. (usually derogatory, countable) An instance of preciosity; something that is overly refined in an affected way.

   Synonym: affectation

   • 1772, José Francisco de Isla, translated by Thomas Nugent, The History of the Famous Preacher Friar Gerund de Campazas‎^[5], London: T. Davies and W. Flexney, Volume 2, Book 6, Chapter 2, p. 471:

     “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,^[6]

     “Yes, mother mine,” she replied. (Sylvia was rather addicted to little preciosities of this kind.)

   • 1940, George Orwell, “Inside the Whale”, in Such, Such Were the Joys‎^[7], New York: Harcourt, Brace, page 166:

     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. (obsolete, uncountable) The quality of being precious (of high value or worth).

   Synonyms: preciousness, value, worth

   • 1654, Michael Maier, “The Oyster”, in John Hall, transl., Lusus Serius, or, Serious Passe-Time‎^[8], London: Humphrey Moseley, pages 38–39:

     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.

   • 1902, Bram Stoker, The Mystery of the Sea‎^[9], London: Heinemann, Appendix, pp. 490-491:

     [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.

   • 1907, E.M. Forster, The Longest Journey, Part I, II [Uniform ed., p. 27]:

     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. (obsolete, countable) Something of high value or worth.

   Synonym: treasure

   • 1668, Henry More, Divine Dialogues‎^[10], London: James Flesher, Dialogue 3, pages 374–375:

     That which is rare (we know) is with all Nations precious, and what is precious they love to appropriate and transferr upon themselves as near as they can […] . So if there be any thing more costly then another, they will hang it on their Bodies […] , such as their Ear-rings and Jewells. But these Barbarians seem to exceed them in the curiositie of their application of these Preciosities, they fully implanting them into their very Flesh, as if they were part of their natural Body.

   • 1754, uncredited translator, The History of the Moravians by Heinrich Rimius, London: J. Robinson, Section 14, p. 90,^[11]

     An honest Man that sits in our common Court of Justice, to decide there instead of the Sovereign according to the common Law and our Statutes, is an inestimable Preciosity for us […]

   • 1858, Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II of Prussia‎^[12], New York: Harper, published 1862, Volume 2, Book 13, Chapter 12, p. 437:

     ‘ […] the Pope […] had to send him a valuable Gift, which you may see some day.’ Nüssler did, one day, see this preciosity: a Crucifix, ebony bordered with gold, and the Body all of that metal, on the smallest of altars, in Walrave’s bedroom.

Related terms

• precious