English → Latin
“precious” in Latin
pretiōsusvaluable, precious; expensive, costlyēgregiusdistinguished, excellent, eminent; illustrious, honorablepraestōto be preferable, better, coupled with quam; to be outstanding, be exceeding in something, to excel, stand out, be superexcellōto elevate, raise up; to rise, elevate oneself; to exult, be elated
The English word precious itself goes back to Latin pretium, through pretiōsus.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
precious
Costly, sumtuosus: pretiosus: quod magni est pretii.
Excellent, pretiosus: egregius: praestans: excellens.
Precious stones: Vid: JEWEL.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for precious?
- The usual Latin words for “precious” are pretiōsus, ēgregius, praestō; also excellō. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.