preciosity

American  

[presh-ee-os-i-tee] / ˌprɛʃ iˈɒs ɪ ti /

noun

plural

preciosities

1. fastidious or carefully affected refinement, as in language, style, or taste.

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preciosity British  

/ ˌprɛʃɪˈɒsɪtɪ /

noun

1. fastidiousness or affectation, esp in speech or manners

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Etymology

Origin of preciosity

1350–1400; Middle English preciousite < Middle French preciosite < Latin pretiōsitās. See precious, -ity

Example Sentences

She flirts with preciosity, particularly in her overbearing use of Keaton.

From Washington Post • Jan. 25, 2022

“Darkness Odyssey” doesn’t become boring, but it does become a willful exercise in preciosity, in artful effects.

From New York Times • Dec. 15, 2017

Despite the formidable artistry exerted by its actors on its realization, “Brooklyn” isn’t so much a bad movie as it is a virtual self-parody of a genre—that of the minor, dignified, clean-hands art-house preciosity.

From The New Yorker • Nov. 6, 2015

Author Lee, 34, an Alabaman, has written her first novel with all of the tactile brilliance and none of the preciosity generally supposed to be standard swamp-warfare issue for Southern writers.

From Time • Feb. 3, 2015

It is difficult to resist the sense of a strain for bizarre harmony, of a touch of preciosity.

From Symphonies and Their Meaning; Third Series, Modern Symphonies by Goepp, Philip H.