Advertisement

Origin and history of precious

precious(adj.)

mid-13c., "valuable, of great worth or price, costly," 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.)).

The meaning "over-refined, fastidious" in English is by late 14c. From 16c. through 18c. it also had a secondary ironic (inverted) sense of "worthless." Precious metals (1776) "gold and silver (and sometimes platinum)" are those that are rare and costly enough to be used as a standard of value and abundant enough to be used for coinage. Related: Preciously; preciousness.

precious(n.)

"beloved or dear person or object," 1706, from precious (adj.). Since the "Lord of the Rings" movies, often with deliberate echoes of Tolkien.

also from 1706

Entries linking to precious

price(n.)

c. 1200, pris, "non-monetary value, worth; praise," later "recompense, prize, reward," also "sum or amount of money which a seller asks or obtains for goods in market" (mid-13c.), from Old French pris "price, value, wages, reward," also "honor, fame, praise, prize" (Modern French prix), from Late Latin precium, from Latin pretium "reward, prize, value, worth" (from PIE *pret-yo-, suffixed form of *pret-, extended form of root *per- (5) "to traffic in, to sell").

Praise, price, and prize began to diverge in Old French, with praise emerging in Middle English by early 14c. and prize, with the -z- spelling, evident by late 1500s. Having shed the extra Old French and Middle English senses, price again has the ancient sense of the Latin original. To set (or put) a price on someone, "offer a reward for capture" is from 1766.

precieuse(n.)

"pedantic woman, woman aiming at refined delicacy of language and taste," a French word attested in English from 1727, from French précieuse, noun use of fem. of précieux (see precious (adj.)); especially as lampooned in Molière's comedy "Les Précieuses ridicules" (1659).

Advertisement

More to explore

sapphire
precious stone, a blue-to-transparent variety of corundum next in hardness to diamond, mid-13c., saphyr, from Old French...and directly from Latin sapphirus (source also of Spanish zafir, Italian zaffiro), from Greek sappheiros, name of a blue precious...Some linguists propose an origin in Sanskrit sanipriya, a dark precious stone (perhaps sapphire or emerald), literally "sacred...to Saturn," from Sani "Saturn" + priyah "precious."...
dear
Old English deore (Anglian diore, West Saxon dyre), "precious, valuable; costly, expensive; glorious, noble; loved, beloved..., regarded with affection" from Proto-Germanic *deurja- (source also of Old Saxon diuri "precious, dear, expensive," Old...Norse dyrr, Old Frisian diore "expensive, costly," Middle Dutch diere "precious, expensive, scarce, important," Dutch duur...The old sense of "precious, valuable" has become obsolete, but that of "characterized by a high price in consideration of...
gem
"a precious stone" (especially when cut or polished), c. 1300, probably from Old French gemme (12c.), from Latin gemma "precious...Alternative forms iemme, gimme persisted into 14c. and might represent a survival of Old English gimm "precious stone, gem...
emerald
"bright green precious stone," c. 1300, emeraude, from Old French esmeraude (12c.), from Medieval Latin esmaraldus, from...In early examples the word, like most other names of precious stones, is of vague meaning; the mediæval references to the...
avoirdupois
introduced into England from Bayonne, from late 15c. it was the standard system of weights used in England for all goods except precious...metals, precious stones, and medicine....
inestimable
Meaning "too precious to set a value on, priceless" is attested by 1570s. Related: Inestimably; inestimability....
jasper
precious stone, c. 1300, from Anglo-French jaspre, Old French jaspre, with unetymological -r-, a variant of jaspe (12c.),...
tan
c. 1400, tannen, in part from late Old English tannian "convert hides into leather" (by steeping them in liquid containing tannin), from Medieval Latin tannare "tan, dye a tawny color" (c. 900), from tannum "crushed oak bark," used in tanning leather. This is believed to be from
diligence
mid-14c., "constant and earnest effort to accomplish what is undertaken," from Old French diligence "attention, care; haste, speed" and directly from Latin diligentia "attentiveness, carefulness," from diligentem (nominative diligens) "attentive, assiduous, careful," present-part
flux
late 14c., "abnormally copious flow," from Old French flus "a flowing, a rolling; a bleeding" (Modern French flux), or directly from Latin fluxus (adj.) "flowing, loose, slack," past participle of fluere "to flow" (see fluent). Originally "excessive flow" (of blood or excrement),

Share precious

Advertisement
Trending
Dictionary entries near precious
Advertisement