prețios

Forms

prețios m or n (feminine singular prețioasă, masculine plural prețioși, feminine/neuter plural prețioase)^[1] Asachi used a form prețuos: „Surori gemine-ale tale prețuos timp n-a pierdut” “your twin sisters have lost no precious time”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin pretiosus (“costly, precious”), with French précieux as a second source: MDA2 and DLR name these two,^[4][2] and DEX, Tiktin and the neologism dictionaries add Italian prezioso.^[5][3][6] Scriban and Șăineanu give only Latin.^[7][8] Wiktionary allows a Romanian formation on the model of the French word, from preț with the suffix -ios.^[1]

The Latin adjective is formed from pretium (“price, value”) with -ōsus.^[9] French borrowed it from Latin, as Old French precïus, around 1050.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in a calendar of 1794, in a recipe saying that the chopped meat loses all that is most valuable in it.^[4][2][3] The sense is material: worth much, costly.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the 1830s the word was used for what is valuable for its usefulness, rarity or age, or for reasons of feeling: an institution too precious to let decay (1833), the precious library of Alexandria (Săulescu, 1837).^[2] The phrases metal prețios “precious metal” and piatră prețioasă “precious stone” follow the French.^[7][5]

The sense “affected, mannered” comes from French: Scriban gives French précieuse for the affected woman, the précieuses that Molière mocked.^[7] As a noun the word names a person with an affected style or manner.^[4] In the plural, the old language also used prețioase for jewels.^[4]

Timeline

• 1794 – the first record, in a calendar.^[4][3]
• 1833 – “valuable” in a non-material sense, in an official bulletin.^[2]
• 1837 – prețioasa bibliotecă in Săulescu's universal history.^[2]
• 1870 – Costinescu glosses it with French précieux.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. precious, valuable: of great material, spiritual or moral value;^[5][4] metal prețios “precious metal”, piatră prețioasă “precious stone”.^[5][4]
2. Dear to someone; highly valued or loved: un prieten prețios “a precious friend”.^[5][7]
3. affected, over-refined, lacking simplicity and naturalness.^[5][6]

Noun

1. A person with an affected manner or style.^[4][12]

Related words

• preț
• prețui
• Latin pretiosus

Usage notes

The word is pronounced with a hiatus, pre-ți-os.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. prețios
3. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. prețios
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 529
5. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 871
6. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
7. ^ a b c d Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună
8. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 509
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 350
12. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România