different between affluent vs precious

English

Etymology

Middle French affluent, from Latin affluentem, accusative singular of afflu?ns, present active participle of afflu? (“flow to or towards; overflow with”), from ad (“to, towards”) + flu? (“flow”) (cognate via latter to fluid, flow). Sense of “wealthy” (plentiful flow of goods) c. 1600, which also led to nominalization affluence.

Pronunciation

• (UK)
  • IPA^(key): /?æf.lu.?nt/

• (US)
  • enPR: ?f'lo?o-?nt, IPA^(key): /?æflu??nt/
  • enPR: ?-flo?o'?nt, ?-flo?o'?nt, IPA^(key): /æ?flu??nt/, /??flu??nt/
  • Although the pronunciation with second-syllable stress does occur in educated U.S. usage, it is appreciably less common than the pronunciation with first-syllable stress and is regarded as unacceptable by many American speakers.

Noun

affluent (plural affluents)

1. Somebody who is wealthy.
   • 1994, Philip D. Cooper, Health care marketing: a foundation for managed quality (page 183)

     The affluents are most similar to the professional want-it-alls in their reasons for preferring specific hospitals and in their demographic characteristics.

2. A stream or river flowing into a larger river or into a lake; a tributary stream; a tributary.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:moneybags

Translations

Adjective

affluent (comparative more affluent, superlative most affluent)

1. Abundant; copious; plenteous.
2. (by extension) Abounding in goods or riches; having a moderate level of material wealth.

   They were affluent, but aspired to true wealth.

   The Upper East Side is an affluent neighborhood in New York City.

3. (dated) Tributary.
4. (obsolete) Flowing to; flowing abundantly.
   • 1672 Gideon Harvey, Morbus Anglicus, Or, The Anatomy of Consumptions

     affluent blood

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:wealthy

Antonyms

• indigent

Derived terms

• affluence
• affluently

Translations

References

French

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.fly.??/

Adjective

affluent (feminine singular affluente, masculine plural affluents, feminine plural affluentes)

1. tributary

Noun

affluent m (plural affluents)

1. tributary; affluent

Related terms

• affluence
• affluer

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.fly/

Verb

affluent

1. third-person plural present indicative of affluer
2. third-person plural present subjunctive of affluer

Further reading

• “affluent” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Latin

Verb

affluent

1. third-person plural future active indicative of afflu?

English

Alternative forms

• pretious (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English precious, borrowed from Old French precios (“valuable, costly, precious, beloved, also affected, finical”), from Latin preti?sus (“of great value, costly, dear, precious”), from pretium (“value, price”); see price.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p????s/
• Rhymes: -???s

Adjective

precious (comparative more precious, superlative most precious)

1. Of high value or worth.

2. Regarded with love or tenderness.

3. (derogatory) Treated with too much reverence.

4. (derogatory) Contrived to be cute or charming.
5. (colloquial) Thorough; utter.

   a precious rascal

Synonyms

• (of high value): dear, valuable
• (contrived to charm): saccharine, syrupy, twee

Derived terms

• nonprecious
• precious metal
• precious stone
• preciously
• preciousness
• semiprecious

Related terms

Translations

Noun

precious (plural preciouses)

1. Someone (or something) who is loved; a darling.
   • 1937, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

     “It isn't fair, my precious, is it, to ask us what it's got in its nassty little pocketses?”

   • 1909, Mrs. Teignmouth Shore, The Pride of the Graftons (page 57)

     She sat down with the dogs in her lap. "I won't neglect you for any one, will I, my preciouses?"

Adverb

precious (not comparable)

1. Very; an intensifier.

   There is precious little we can do.

   precious few pictures of him exist

Usage notes

This adverb is chiefly used before few and little; usage with other adjectives (slight, small, scant) is much more sporadic, and is in any case limited to the semantic field of “little, small, scarce, few”.

Translations

Further reading

• precious on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Further reading

• precious in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• precious in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.