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

We hope we have not been understood as meaning to insinuate, that because her Ladyship is the mother of a couple of dozen of volumes, she is on that account a précieuse ridicule.

From The American Quarterly Review, No. 17, March 1831 by Walsh, Robert

But she, with many of her peers, was too rich in sarcastic common sense to be a précieuse ridicule.

From Classic French Course in English by Wilkinson, William Cleaver

These ladies called each other, with demonstrative fondness, "Ma précieuse."

From Classic French Course in English by Wilkinson, William Cleaver

They succeeded better with the marchandes des modes and the jewellers, furnishing a vocabulary excessively précieuse, by which people bought their old wares with new names.

From Literary Character of Men of Genius Drawn from Their Own Feelings and Confessions by Disraeli, Isaac

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.

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

From Gossip in a Library by Gosse, Edmund

Some of the refined ladies at Mrs. Gilder's objected to his "crude speech," for even in the eighties there were still précieuses.

From Confessions of a Book-Lover by Egan, Maurice Francis

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

When in 1659 his comedy Les précieuses Ridicules took Paris by storm, it did more than make a reformation of the manners of its own.

From The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 11 by Johnson, Rossiter

That which vauntingly styles itself the écriture artiste must reap its reward promptly in praise from the précieuses ridicules of the hour.

From Inquiries and Opinions by Matthews, Brander