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Encyclopedia Britannica



PRECIOUS (O. Fr. precios, mod. precieux, Lat. pretiosus, of high value or price, pretium)

This article appears in Volume V22, Page 275 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: POL-PRE
PRECIOUS (O. Fr. precios, mod. precieux, Lat. pretiosus, of high value or price, pretium) , costly or of high value, particularly used in political
economy
  of those metals which are " valuable enough to be used as a standard of value and abundant enough for coinage " (The
Century
  Dictionary). The
term
  is thus practically confined to gold and silver.
Platinum
  in theory may he included as it was used for coinage in
Russia
  in 1828; the fluctuations in the value of the metal caused its discontinuance in 1845 (see Goias, SILVER and MONEY). " Precious stones " include those gems which are valued for
ornament
  and
jewelry
 . " Strictly speaking the only precious stones are the diamond, ruby, sapphire and
emerald
 , though the
term
  is often extended to the opal, notwithstanding its lack of hardness, and to the pearl . . . strictly an animal product," G. F. Kunz, Gems and Precious Stones of North America (189o) (see GEM, and LAPIDARY AND GEM-CUTTING). A particular use of " precious " as meaning fastidious, over-refined, is taken from the French precieux,
familiar
  in the appellation of Les Precieuses, given to the social and literary circle of ladies which centred round the Hotel de
Rambouillet
  in the 17th
century
  (see
RAMBOUILLET
 ; CATHERINE DE VIVONNE, MARQUISE DE).


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