1.
[syn: preciosity, preciousness]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Preciosity \Pre`ci*os"i*ty\, n.
Preciousness; something precious. [Obs.] --Sir T. Browne.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Preciosity \Pre`ci*os"i*ty\, n.; pl. -ties. [F.
pr['e]ciosit['e], OF. also precieuset['e].]
Fastidious refinement, esp. in language; specif., the
affected purism and sententiousness characteristic of the
French pr['e]cieuses of the 17th century.
He had the fastidiousness, the preciosity, the love of
archaisms, of your true decadent. --L. Douglas.
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
preciosity
n 1: the quality of being fastidious or excessively refined
[syn: preciosity, preciousness]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
36 Moby Thesaurus words for "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