precious

The story

1. Latin · derived frompretiōsus“of great value, costly, dear, precious”
2. Old French · derived fromprecios“valuable, costly, precious, beloved, also affected, finical”
3. Middle English · inherited fromprecious
4. English todayprecious

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.