also pricy, "expensive," 1932, from price (n.) + -y (2). High-pricey is attested from 1923 in a jocular poem (rhymes with spicy) by F.P. Adams.
Entries linking to pricey
price n.
c. 1200, pris, "non-monetary value, worth; praise," later "recompense, prize, reward," also "sum or amount of money which a seller asks or obtains for goods in market" (mid-13c.), from Old French pris "price, value, wages, reward," also "honor, fame, praise, prize" (Modern French prix), from Late Latin precium, from Latin pretium "reward, prize, value, worth" (from PIE *pret-yo-, suffixed form of *pret-, extended form of root *per- (5) "to traffic in, to sell").
Praise, price, and prize began to diverge in Old French, with praise emerging in Middle English by early 14c. and prize, with the -z- spelling, evident by late 1500s. Having shed the extra Old French and Middle English senses, price again has the ancient sense of the Latin original. To set (or put) a price on someone, "offer a reward for capture" is from 1766.
-y 2
adjective suffix, "full of or characterized by," from Old English -ig, from Proto-Germanic *-iga- (source also of Dutch, Danish, German -ig, Gothic -egs), from PIE -(i)ko-, adjectival suffix, cognate with elements in Greek -ikos, Latin -icus (see -ic). Originally added to nouns in Old English; used from 13c. with verbs, and by 15c. even with other adjectives (for example crispy). Adjectives such as hugy, vasty are artificial words that exist for the sake of poetical metrics.