preciosity

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: pre=ci=os=i=ty

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