précieuse

American  

[prey-see-ooz, prey-syœz] / ˌpreɪ siˈʊz, preɪˈsjœz /

noun

précieuses plural

1. one of the 17th-century literary women of France who affected an extreme care in the use of language.

2. an affected or pretentious woman, especially one marked by preciosity in manner or speech.

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adjective

1. (of a woman) marked by affectation or preciosity.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• précieuses
  plural

Etymology

Origin of précieuse

1720–30; < French; feminine of précieux ( def. ); see -euse

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

précieuse précieuses

Here in America their only suitable place would be a museum, or to frame the tiny "devotional" of some précieuse Flower of Modernity.

From The Art of Interior Decoration by Wood, Grace

As the précieuse did nothing according to common usage, she could not dine p. 50like another. 

From The Essays of "George Eliot" Complete by Sheppard, Nathan

She gave him a full history of her brother's honourable and brilliant career; and here let it be said that the précieuse in her gave way to the sister, and that she talked with feeling.

From Marriage à la mode by Ward, Humphry, Mrs.

There is an advance in character, an advance in "interior" description—the Vollichon family circle, the banter and the gambling at Lucrèce's home, the humour of a précieuse meeting, etc.

From A History of the French Novel, Vol. 1 From the Beginning to 1800 by Saintsbury, George

The foolish side of the précieuse system comes out here, and the treatment confirms one's suspicion that the author's classical knowledge was not very deep.

From A History of the French Novel, Vol. 1 From the Beginning to 1800 by Saintsbury, George

She was carefully brought up under Ménage and Rapin, among others, and was one of the most brilliant of the précieuses of the Hôtel Rambouillet.

From A Short History of French Literature by Saintsbury, George

But among the précieuses of the seventeenth century there was much more appreciation.

From Gossip in a Library by Gosse, Edmund

In a sort of loud cackling—a voice she sometimes surprisingly adopted—she replied, "Oh, give me a blow-out of tripe and onions!" to the confusion of the précieuses.

From Some Diversions of a Man of Letters by Gosse, Edmund

Madame de Longueville reigned there as well as in all the best circles of Paris; and it must be confessed, with her good qualities she had also some of the defects of the best précieuses.

From Political Women, Vol. 1 by Menzies, Sutherland, fl. 1840-1883

About our author, however, we know that his experience has been long, and of the best, that he does not speak from a hasty acquaintance with a few contemporary précieux and précieuses.

From On the Sublime by Havell, H. L. (Herbert Lord)