"preciosity" meaning in All languages combined

See preciosity on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

IPA: /ˌpɹɛʃiˈɒsəti/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ˌpɹɛʃiˈɑsəti/ [General-American] Forms: preciosities [plural]
Etymology: From Latin pretiōsitās (“great value; high price”), probably via French préciosité. Etymology templates: {{der|en|la|pretiōsitās|gloss=great value; high price}} Latin pretiōsitās (“great value; high price”), {{cog|fr|en|préciosité}} French préciosité Head templates: {{en-noun|~}} preciosity (countable and uncountable, plural preciosities)
  1. (usually derogatory, uncountable) The quality of being overly refined in an affected way (often used to describe speech or writing, but also visual art and dress). Tags: derogatory, uncountable, usually Synonyms: affectation, fastidiousness
    Sense id: en-preciosity-en-noun-Nc7tvnwU Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 44 5 49 2
  2. (usually derogatory, countable) An instance of preciosity; something that is overly refined in an affected way. Tags: countable, derogatory, usually Synonyms: affectation
    Sense id: en-preciosity-en-noun-ys8ahe0H
  3. (obsolete, uncountable) The quality of being precious (of high value or worth). Tags: obsolete, uncountable Synonyms: preciousness, value, worth
    Sense id: en-preciosity-en-noun-s4u2cNNN Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 44 5 49 2
  4. (obsolete, countable) Something of high value or worth. Tags: countable, obsolete Synonyms: treasure
    Sense id: en-preciosity-en-noun-iLf7zqOU
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Related terms: precious

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for preciosity meaning in All languages combined (7.6kB)

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          "text": "1902, R. Langton Douglas, A History of Siena, New York: E.P. Dutton, Chapter 18, p. 385,\n[Italian renaissance painter Neroccio] had the fastidiousness, the preciosity, the love of archaisms, of your true decadent."
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          "ref": "1914, Edouard Pailleron, translated by Barrett H. Clark and Hilmar Baukhage, The Art of Being Bored, New York: Samuel French, act I, page 6",
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          "text": "1916, John Cowper Powys, “Oscar Wilde” in Suspended Judgments, New York: G. Arnold Shaw, p. 416,\nThe style of Wilde is one of the simplest in existence, but its simplicity is the very apex and consummation of the artificial. He uses Biblical language with that self-conscious preciosity—like the movements of a person walking on tiptoe in the presence of the dead—which is so different from the sturdy directness of Bunyan or the restrained rhetoric of the Church of England prayers."
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          "ref": "1926, Edgar Wallace, chapter 10, in The Black Abbot, New York: A.L. Burt, page 44",
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          "text": "1913, John Hay Beith (as Ian Hay), Happy-Go-Lucky, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Book 3, Chapter 12, p. 151,\n“Yes, mother mine,” she replied. (Sylvia was rather addicted to little preciosities of this kind.)"
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          "ref": "1940, George Orwell, “Inside the Whale”, in Such, Such Were the Joys, New York: Harcourt, Brace, page 166",
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          "ref": "1654, Michael Maier, “The Oyster”, in John Hall, transl., Lusus Serius, or, Serious Passe-Time, London: Humphrey Moseley, pages 38–39",
          "text": "I must be forc’d to say somewhat of Margarites [i.e. pearls] themselves, and I am affraid I shall rather be struck with the deepest amazement and confusion, than be able to expresse their unspeakable worth and preciosity.",
          "type": "quotation"
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          "ref": "1902, Bram Stoker, The Mystery of the Sea, London: Heinemann, Appendix, pp. 490-491",
          "text": "[The figurehead] was covered up with tow and sacking and so hidden under pretence of safety that none might discover the secret of its intrinsic preciosity.",
          "type": "quotation"
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        {
          "ref": "1907, E.M. Forster, The Longest Journey, Part I, II [Uniform ed., p. 27]",
          "text": "He did not love the vulger herd, but he knew that his own vulgarity would be greater if he forbade it ingress, and that it was not by preciosity that he would attain to the intimate spirit of the dell."
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          "text": "That which is rare (we know) is with all Nations precious, and what is precious they love to appropriate and transferr upon themselves as near as they can […]. So if there be any thing more costly then another, they will hang it on their Bodies […], such as their Ear-rings and Jewells. But these Barbarians seem to exceed them in the curiositie of their application of these Preciosities, they fully implanting them into their very Flesh, as if they were part of their natural Body.",
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        },
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          "ref": "1858, Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II of Prussia, New York: Harper, published 1862, Volume 2, Book 13, Chapter 12, p. 437",
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          "text": "1902, R. Langton Douglas, A History of Siena, New York: E.P. Dutton, Chapter 18, p. 385,\n[Italian renaissance painter Neroccio] had the fastidiousness, the preciosity, the love of archaisms, of your true decadent."
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          "text": "O Father Master, is it possible! (exclaimed the Beneficiary ready to roll about the floor with laughing) is it possible that such preciosities are printed! […]",
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        },
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          "text": "I must be forc’d to say somewhat of Margarites [i.e. pearls] themselves, and I am affraid I shall rather be struck with the deepest amazement and confusion, than be able to expresse their unspeakable worth and preciosity.",
          "type": "quotation"
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          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1907, E.M. Forster, The Longest Journey, Part I, II [Uniform ed., p. 27]",
          "text": "He did not love the vulger herd, but he knew that his own vulgarity would be greater if he forbade it ingress, and that it was not by preciosity that he would attain to the intimate spirit of the dell."
        }
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          "text": "That which is rare (we know) is with all Nations precious, and what is precious they love to appropriate and transferr upon themselves as near as they can […]. So if there be any thing more costly then another, they will hang it on their Bodies […], such as their Ear-rings and Jewells. But these Barbarians seem to exceed them in the curiositie of their application of these Preciosities, they fully implanting them into their very Flesh, as if they were part of their natural Body.",
          "type": "quotation"
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        {
          "text": "1754, uncredited translator, The History of the Moravians by Heinrich Rimius, London: J. Robinson, Section 14, p. 90,\nAn honest Man that sits in our common Court of Justice, to decide there instead of the Sovereign according to the common Law and our Statutes, is an inestimable Preciosity for us […]"
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        {
          "ref": "1858, Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II of Prussia, New York: Harper, published 1862, Volume 2, Book 13, Chapter 12, p. 437",
          "text": "‘[…] the Pope […] had to send him a valuable Gift, which you may see some day.’ Nüssler did, one day, see this preciosity: a Crucifix, ebony bordered with gold, and the Body all of that metal, on the smallest of altars, in Walrave’s bedroom.",
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.