unguent

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English unguent, also unguentum and ungwent,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin unguentum (“ointment”),^{[5][6][3][7][8][2]} from unguō (“to smear, anoint”).^[5][3][9][1] Dictionary.com and Klein put unguen (“fat, grease, ointment”) between the two, Dictionary.com taking unguentum as an alteration of it after the suffixes -men and -mentum.^[10][11] The Middle English Dictionary compares Old French onguent and Anglo-Norman unguent.^[2] The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ongw- (“to salve, anoint”),^[6][7] which Wiktionary writes Proto-Indo-European *h₃engʷ-.^[1] Its relatives mostly mean butter: Old Prussian anctan, Old High German ancho, German Anke, Old Irish imb and Welsh ymenyn.^{[6][7][11][8]} Sanskrit and Armenian keep verbs for anointing.^[6][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

An ointment or salve.^[2][5] The Middle English Dictionary's first quotation is from a translation of Lanfranc's surgery, before 1400,^[2] and Etymonline dates the word to about 1400.^[6] Barnhart first finds it before 1425, in the translation of Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie, which explains it as something oily that does not run;^[7][2] the OED starts later, with Palladius about 1440.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word was first a term of medieval surgery, where the Middle English translations of Chauliac name particular ointments such as unguentum aureum.^[2] From 1596 it was also used figuratively.^[5] Johnson (1755) glossed it simply as "ointment", quoting Bacon and Glanvill.^[12] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster include lubricants in the definition.^[6][4] The verb "to anoint" appears in 1656,^[5][13] and the rare adjective "unctuous in manner" in H. Belloc's Cranmer (1931).^[5][13]

Timeline

• before 1400 – an ointment or salve.^[2] Etymonline has about 1400, Barnhart before 1425 and the OED about 1440.^[6][7][5]
• 1596 – figurative use.^[5]
• 1656 – verb, to treat with an unguent.^[5]
• 1931 – adjective, unctuous in manner.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. An ointment or salve, as for sores or burns; especially, a perfumed oil used in this way.^{[14][4][13][5]}
2. A lubricant.^[4][6][13]

Verb

1. (rare) To apply an unguent to; to anoint.^[5][13]

Adjective

1. (rare) Of a person, smooth and flattering in manner; unctuous.^[5][13]

Word family

• unguentary

Related words

• unction
• unctuous
• anoint
• ointment
• axunge

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ 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
14. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins