"precious"

[David Simpson]

Otto wrote:

> you must explain to me what you mean by *precious* cause
> my dictionaries only give a positive meaning.

Applied to a work of art or literature, the terms "precious" or "mannered" mean
that the style is too conspicuously overwrought or cloyingly artificial. The word
"precious" (in this derogatory sense) thus connotes a style that is to an annoying
degree meretricious, unnatural, showy, decadent, or self-indulgent. I suppose
TRP's style strikes some readers as excessively literary and over-the-top at
times, but it is never (at least to my ear and taste) "precious."
--
"Anything can be said about world history, including anything that might occur to
the most distraught imagination. There is only one thing that cannot be said about
it--that it is sensible." -- FD, Notes from Underground.