Word Study
Preciosity
WORDNET DICTIONARY
Noun Preciosity has 1 sense
- preciosity(n = noun.attribute) preciousness - the quality of being fastidious or excessively refined; Array is a kind of affectedness
Derived form adjective precious4
CIDE DICTIONARY
Preciosity, n.
Preciousness; something precious. Sir T. Browne. [1913 Webster]
Preciosity, n. [F. préciosité, OF. also precieuseté.].
Fastidious refinement, esp. in language; specif., the affected purism and sententiousness characteristic of the French précieuses of the 17th century.
"He had the fastidiousness, the preciosity, the love of archaisms, of your true decadent."
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
Preciosity, n. overrefinement in art or language, esp. in the choice of words.
Etymology
OF pr{eacute}ciosit{eacute} f. L pretiositas f. pretiosus (as PRECIOUS)
THESAURUS
Preciosity
Gongorism, affectation, affectedness, artfulness, artifice, artificiality, ceremonialism, elegance, euphemism, euphuism, exquisiteness, formalism, formality, goody-goodness, goody-goodyism, hyperelegance, legalism, manneredness, mannerism, overelaboration, overelegance, overniceness, overpreciseness, overrefinement, pedantism, pedantry, preciousness, preciseness, precisianism, pretentiousness, punctilio, punctiliousness, purism, ritualism, scrupulousness, unnaturalness
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