E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Précieuses Ridicules (in Molière’s comedy so called).
Aminte and Polixène, who assume the airs of the Hôtel de Rambouillet, a coterie of savants of both sexes in the seventeenth century. The members of this society were termed précieuses—i.e. “persons of distinguished merit”—and the précieuses ridicules means a ridiculous apeing of their ways and manners.
