different between price vs precious

English

Alternative forms

• prize (obsolete) [16th–19th c.]

Etymology

From Middle English price (“price, prize, value, excellence”), borrowed from Old French pris, preis, from Latin pretium (“worth, price, money spent, wages, reward”); compare praise, precious, appraise, appreciate, depreciate, etc.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -a?s
• (UK, US): enPR: pr?s, IPA^(key): /p?a?s/
• (Canadian raising): IPA^(key): /p???s/

Noun

price (plural prices)

1. The cost required to gain possession of something.
2. The cost of an action or deed.

3. Value; estimation; excellence; worth.
   • 1611, Bible (King James Version), Proverbs xxxi. 10

     Her price is far above rubies.

   • new treasures still, of countless price

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• ? Irish: praghas

Translations

Verb

price (third-person singular simple present prices, present participle pricing, simple past and past participle priced)

1. (transitive) To determine the monetary value of (an item); to put a price on.
2. (transitive, obsolete) To pay the price of; to make reparation for.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.ix:

     Thou damned wight, / The author of this fact, we here behold, / What iustice can but iudge against thee right, / With thine owne bloud to price his bloud, here shed in sight.

3. (transitive, obsolete) To set a price on; to value; to prize.
4. (transitive, colloquial, dated) To ask the price of.

   to price eggs

Derived terms

• budget-priced

Translations

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• Cripe, recip.

Latin

Noun

price

1. ablative singular of prex

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.