précieuse

American  

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

noun

plural

précieuses

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.

---

adjective

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

Etymology

Origin of précieuse

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

Example Sentences

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

Hence at last the term précieuse as a designation of ridicule.

From Classic French Course in English by Wilkinson, William Cleaver

Ménage and Chapelain had, among others, much to do with her education, and she was a member of the celebrated coterie of the Hôtel Rambouillet, though her satirical humour saved her from being a précieuse.

From A Short History of French Literature by Saintsbury, George

She has been described as a "thinker and scientist, précieuse and pedant, but not the less a coquette—in short, a woman of contradictions."

From Woman in Science With an Introductory Chapter on Woman's Long Struggle for Things of the Mind by Zahm, John Augustine

It is not précieuse, and it is not banal; but its simplicity of pathos is a whit too simple.

From Contemporary American Composers Being a Study of the Music of This Country, Its Present Conditions and Its Future, with Critical Estimates and Biographies of the Principal Living Composers; and an Abundance of Portraits, Fac-simile Musical Autographs, and Compositions by Hughes, Rupert