Толковый словарь английского языка Oxford English Reference - precious

adj. & adv. --adj. 1 of great value or worth. 2 beloved; much prized (precious memories). 3 affectedly refined, esp. in language or manner. 4 colloq. often iron. a considerable (a precious lot you know about it). b expressing contempt or disdain (you can keep your precious flowers). --adv. colloq. extremely, very (tried precious hard; had precious little left). Phrases and idioms precious metals gold, silver, and platinum. precious stone a piece of mineral having great value esp. as used in jewellery. Derivatives preciously adv. preciousness n. Etymology: ME f. OF precios f. L pretiosus f. pretium price