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

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

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

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

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 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