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precious

[presh-uh s]
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adjective
  1. of high price or great value; very valuable or costly: precious metals.
  2. highly esteemed for some spiritual, nonmaterial, or moral quality: precious memories.
  3. dear; beloved: a precious child.
  4. affectedly or excessively delicate, refined, or nice: precious manners.
  5. flagrant; gross: a precious fool.
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noun
  1. a dearly beloved person; darling.
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adverb
  1. extremely; very: She wastes precious little time.
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Origin of precious

1250–1300; Middle English preciose (< Old French precios) < Latin pretiōsus costly, valuable, equivalent to preti(um) price, value + -ōsus -ous
Related formspre·cious·ly, adverbpre·cious·ness, nounnon·pre·cious, adjectivenon·pre·cious·ly, adverbnon·pre·cious·ness, nounun·pre·cious, adjectiveun·pre·cious·ly, adverbun·pre·cious·ness, noun

Synonyms

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1. See valuable. 3. darling, cherished.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for preciousness

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • A tale for the young, illustrative of the preciousness of Scripture promises.

    Hunter's Marjory

    Margaret Bruce Clarke

  • This she can do now and then; but even so her new lover has yet to learn her preciousness.

    Oxford

    Frederick Douglas How

  • Let it be so, with an ever-growing sense of the preciousness of the work of intercession.

    To My Younger Brethren

    Handley C. G. Moule

  • Now they wore a glamour and a preciousness that was bound up with life itself.

    Miss Mapp

    Edward Frederic Benson

  • The idea of preciousness, as well as that of protection, is included in the word.

British Dictionary definitions for preciousness

precious

adjective
  1. beloved; dear; cherished
  2. very costly or valuable
  3. held in high esteem, esp in moral or spiritual matters
  4. very fastidious or affected, as in speech, manners, etc
  5. informal worthlessyou and your precious ideas!
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adverb
  1. informal (intensifier)there's precious little left
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Derived Formspreciously, adverbpreciousness, noun

Word Origin

C13: from Old French precios, from Latin pretiōsus valuable, from pretium price, value
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for preciousness

precious

adj.

mid-13c., from Old French precios "precious, costly, honorable, of great worth" (11c., Modern French précieux), from Latin pretiosus "costly, valuable," from pretium "value, worth, price" (see price (n.)). Meaning "over-refined" in English first recorded late 14c. In Johnson's day, it also had a secondary inverted sense of "worthless." Related: Preciously; preciousness.

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precious

n.

"beloved or dear person or object," 1706, from precious (adj.).

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper