## Meanings
1. Very valuable or worth a lot of money.
2. Greatly loved and important to someone.
3. Very (used to stress how little there is of something).

## Examples
- Diamonds and rubies are precious stones.
- These photographs are precious to me.
- There is precious little time left before the deadline.

## Derived Forms
- eight-precious
- non-precious
- nonprecious
- overprecious
- preciously
- preciousness
- semi-precious
- semiprecious
- unprecious

## Related Forms
- appraise
- appreciate
- depreciate
- praise
- preciosity
- price

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: precious
- Root: pretiōsus

## Etymology
Inherited from Middle English precious, borrowed from Old French precios (“valuable, costly, precious, beloved, also affected, finical”), from Latin pretiōsus (“of great value, costly, dear, precious”), from pretium (“value, price”); see price.

## AI Etymology
Precious is inherited from Middle English precious, borrowed from Old French precios (“valuable, costly, precious, beloved, also affected, finical”), from Latin pretiōsus (“of great value, costly, dear, precious”), from pretium (“value, price”); see price. In present-day English it covers very valuable or worth a lot of money, greatly loved and important to someone, and very (used to stress how little there is of something). The wider family includes derived forms such as eight-precious, non-precious, nonprecious, overprecious, preciously and related forms such as appraise, appreciate, depreciate, praise.

## Topics
- Space, Position & Direction

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precious

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