precious

   This has been in use as an endearment since at least the early eighteenth century, often as ‘my precious’. Before that the word occurred as a vocative element, either in its sense of valuable or as an intensive of something bad.

   Shakespeare has Ferdinand, in The Tempest (3:i) addressing Miranda as ‘precious creature’, and Anthony calling Cleopatra ‘my precious queen’, equating that phrase with ‘my dearest queen’, ‘most sweet queen’, and the like (Antony and Cleopatra, 3:i). On the other hand, in Cymbeline (3:v), we have Cloten addressing Pisanio as ‘you precious pander and villain’, while later (4:ii) he calls Guiderius ‘thou precious varlet’ and ‘thou injurious thief’.

   As an endearment ‘precious’ would often be addressed to a child. Its use between lovers occurs in Babbitt, by Sinclair Lewis: ‘“George, I wonder if you really like me at all?” “Course I do, silly.” “Do you really, precious?”’ In Gone With The Wind, by Margaret Mitchell, ‘You’re mighty pretty, precious’ is the last thing Rhett Butler says to Bonnie, the child he adores, before she is killed in a riding accident.