Dictionary entry

Preciosity (2)

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Pre′ci‐os″i‐ty (?), n.; pl. -ties (#). [F. préciosité, OF. also precieuseté.] Fastidious refinement, esp. in language; specif., the affected purism and sententiousness characteristic of the French précieuses of the 17th century.

He had the fastidiousness, the preciosity, the love of archaisms, of your true decadent. L. Douglas.