unctuous

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English unctuous,^[2][3] borrowed from Medieval Latin unctuōsus (“greasy”),^{[4][2][5][6][7]} and, in several dictionaries, borrowed from Old French unctueus.^[3][8][7] The Medieval Latin adjective is from Latin ūnctum (“ointment”),^[4][3][9] the neuter of the past participle of unguō (“to anoint”),^[4][3][9][7] though Barnhart, Etymonline and Dictionary.com derive it from ūnctus (“act of anointing”).^[8][7][5] Merriam-Webster Unabridged calls the formation irregular.^[9] The OED compares French onctueux, Italian untuoso, Spanish untuoso and Portuguese unctuoso.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Oily, greasy, like an ointment: before 1387, in Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon.^[4][8] The Middle English Dictionary shows it used of oily foods, of medicinal preparations made with fat, and of skin that is oily to the touch.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense spread in the early modern period: to greasy, rich meat from 1495, to soft, rich soil from 1555, to vapours from 1606, and to whatever has an oily feel, now chiefly minerals, from 1668.^[4][10] Johnson (1755) knew only "fat; clammy; oily", quoting Shakespeare and Milton's "unctuous vapour".^[11] The modern figurative sense rests on unction in its religious use.^[7][4] Etymonline dates "deep spiritual feeling" in that word to the 1690s, as of one who has been anointed, and takes the adjective's sense as partly sarcastic.^[7] The OED first has the adjective of persons in 1742, in a letter of G. Cheyne, and of speech and conduct in 1822, in C. Lamb, meaning marked by spiritual unction, later especially assumed or superficial, and so complacently agreeable.^[4][8] The Shorter Oxford adds that it now usually means unpleasantly flattering, with an obsequious charm.^[10]

Timeline

• before 1387 – like an ointment, oily, greasy.^[4][8]
• 1495 – of meat, greasy, rich.^[4]
• 1555 – of soil, soft, adhesive and rich.^[4]
• 1606 – of vapours, of the nature of oil or grease.^[4]
• 1668 – having an oily or greasy feel.^[4]
• 1742 – of persons, showing an assumed spiritual feeling, blandly ingratiating.^[4][8][7]
• 1822 – of speech or conduct, in the same sense.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Excessively or insincerely flattering; ingratiating with an oily charm.^[12][10][7]
2. Showing spiritual feeling, especially of an assumed or self-satisfied kind.^[4][10]
3. Of the nature of an ointment; oily or greasy.^[12][9][4]
4. Of food, rich in fat.^[9][4]
5. Smooth and greasy to the touch, as some minerals are.^[9][10]
6. Of soil, soft and sticky, and rich in organic matter.^[9][4][10]

Word family

• unctuously
• unctuousness
• unctuosity

Related words

• inunction
• unction
• unguent
• unguinous
• ointment

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins