untuoso

Forms

untuoso (feminine untuosa, masculine plural untuosos, feminine plural untuosas)^[1]

Etymology

According to the current Academy dictionary it is borrowed from Medieval Latin unctuōsus (“greasy”), formed from unctum (“ointment, fat”) and the suffix -ōsus.^[2][3] Wiktionary allows either that Latin source or a Spanish formation from unto.^[1] The Academy's 19th-century editions and Moliner derive it from the noun or from its Latin source.^[4][5] Corominas lists it among the derivatives of untar, with a first record in Laguna in 1555 and a rare variant untoso.^[6][7]

The Latin noun is the neuter of ūnctus, the past participle of ungō (“to anoint”).^[1][8] The verb goes back to *h₃engʷ- (“to anoint”).^[1] Wiktionary explains the ending -uōsus by adjectives such as virtuōsus.^[1] The same adjective is French onctueux and Italian untuoso.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

DEMel cites untuoso from a Bible text of about 1400.^[10] The Old Spanish Textual Archive has it in the Cirugía mayor of Guido Lanfranco, a manuscript of 1481, in a medical sense: greasy, oily.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Terreros glossed it as greasy, as if smeared with fat, and the Academy defined it from 1817 as of a fatty, rich and sticky substance.^[12][13] The figurative, disparaging sense, of a manner so sweet and friendly that it seems false and cloying, is a later addition to the dictionaries.^[2][1] Today it is also said of a wine or a cream with a smooth, rich texture.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – DEMel's first record, in a Bible text.^[10]
• 1481 – the Cirugía mayor of Guido Lanfranco uses the word.^[11]
• 1555 – Corominas's first record, in Laguna.^[6][7]
• 1817 – first in the Academy's dictionary.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from unto.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. greasy and sticky; oily to the touch: una pomada untuosa.^[2][1]
2. (derogatory) Excessively sweet and polite in speech and manner, to the point of seeming false; unctuous.^[2][1]

Word family

• untuosidad

Related words

• untar
• unto
• untura
• ungüento
• Latin unctum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. untuoso
3. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre, p. 8, 367
4. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1063
5. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. untuoso
6. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 715
7. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. untar
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. unctum
9. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 631
10. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. untuoso
11. ^ a b Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. untuoso
12. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 3, 740
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 872
14. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. untuoso