December 08, 2011 - precious (adjective) - What does it mean? -
1 : of great value or high price2 : greatly loved : dear - How
do you use it? - "Mrs. Frisby did what she was told, first
grasping the precious packages of medicine tightly between her
teeth." (Robert C. O'Brien, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH) -
Are you a word wiz? Which word do you think comes from the same
root as "precious"?"Precious" and "appreciate" both come from a
family of words having to do with value. Words in this family
trace to the Latin root "pretium" which means "price, money,
value." An early meaning of "appreciate" is "to recognize
something as valuable." The related word "depreciate" means "to
lower the price or value of something." And "prize" and "price"
were formed when "pretium" was adopted into English as "pris."