Precarious

Pronunciation

• RP IPA: /prəˈkɛəriÉ™s/
• US IPA: /prəˈkÉ›riÉ™s/
• Rhymes: -ɛəriÉ™s

Origin

From Latin precārius ("begged for, obtained by entreaty"), from prex, precis ("prayer"). Compare French précaire and Spanish, Portuguese and Italian precario.

Full definition of precarious

Adjective

1. (comparable) Dangerously insecure or unstable; perilous.
• 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 4, One morning I had been driven to the precarious refuge afforded by the steps of the inn, after rejecting offers from the Celebrity to join him in a variety of amusements. But even here I was not free from interruption, for he was seated on a horse-block below me, playing with a fox terrier.
2. (legal) Depending on the intention of another.

Synonyms

• (not held or fixed securely and likely to fall over) unsteady, rickety, shaky, tottering, unsafe, unstable, wobbly

Usage notes

Because the pre- element of precarious derives from prex and not the preposition prae, this term cannot — etymologically speaking — be written as *præcarious.

Derived terms

• precariously
• precariousness
• precariat
• precarisation, precarization
• precarity