Honey, you are priceless!

Question

Here's an introduction:

I love the word precious. It's a wonderful word when you say it to your wife but I wanted to say that she is not simply precious but there just doesn't exist a price to pay for her. Since she can't be sold she is the most precious one.

So, it was awkward when my wife who knows English a lot worse than I do got angry to hear this, "Honey, you're priceless!"

I may have said it without the ! emotion but I intended to say that she is 'precious' and not 'free'.

So the question is: can "priceless" ever mean "free of charge"?

Mari-Lou A · Answer

For the OP's wife to feel rightly indignated, her husband should have said,

Honey, you're worthless

worthless /ˈwɜrθ lɪs/
adjective
without worth; of no use, importance, or value; good-for-nothing:
• a worthless person; • a worthless contract.

user3169 · Answer

I wouldn't use priceless to describe a person, because it implies people might have a price, which is generally inappropriate.
priceless should be reserved for things that can be bought. Then said item of excessive value could be considered priceless.

That being said, experiences can be priceless if the situation is something that could have been planned and was very enjoyable. (As described in a series of US TV commercials for a certain major credit card company.)

Also, "That's priceless!" can be used in response to an amusing joke or humorous situation, which may or may not be helpful in your situation.

I don't think most people would use priceless to mean "free" in your context.

I would stay with precious. It also has a romantic connotation that you don't get with priceless. Precious gems also follow this theme.

Andrew · Answer

"Priceless" is a perfectly valid term of endearment.
As proof, I just tried it on my wife:

Me:  Darling, you're priceless.
Her:  (with a smile) Aw. Thank you, honey.  What makes you say that?
Me:  I'm just testing out the word on you to see how you react.

If your wife wanted to be clever, she could play off of the word "priceless" to counter that she's actually very, very expensive.  But by default it should be taken as a compliment.

rjpond · Answer

Priceless means "precious".

"Free" isn't given as a possibility by Oxford Living Dictionaries, and I don't remember hearing it used in that sense.

That said, "priceless" does have a secondary meaning: it can be used to refer to something or someone very amusing.  Usually it's probably obvious what you mean by the context and tone of voice, but it's possible that you might be misinterpreted as commending your wife on her humorous qualities (or even as mocking her ridiculousness - "priceless" isn't always a compliment when used in the sense of "amusing").

From Oxford Dictionares:

So precious that its value cannot be determined.
  Informal Very amusing.

‘darling, you're priceless!’

Honey, you are priceless!

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