Etymology: < French préciser to make precise, to determine exactly (c1350 in Middle French in an isolated attestation; subsequently from 1788) < précisprecise adj.
trans. To make precise or definite; to define precisely or exactly; to particularize. Now rare. (OED)
"I wrote a piece for the T.L.S., so I'm just précising it."
- Judith Flanders, as quoted by Lauren Collins, "Nerd Out", 29 August 2011 The New Yorker
Not entirely sure why The New Yorker is choosing to go with the French spelling while the OED doesn't: perhaps it's just one more of its eccentricities, like the way it spells "coöperate" (which I first saw in my edition of The Complete Sherlock Holmes, and have enthusiastically adopted ever since).
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