unto

Forms

unto (feminine unta, masculine plural unti, feminine plural unte)^[1] An old form is Old Italian onto.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ūnctus (“anointed; greasy”), the past participle and adjective of unguō (“to anoint, smear”), and the participle of ungere.^[3][4][1][5] The noun “grease” is inherited from Latin ūnctum (“fat, ointment”), the neuter of the participle used as a noun, already in Latin.^[3][4][6] The DÉRom reconstructs a Proto-Romance noun */ˈʊnk-t-u/ “fat prepared for greasing”; since Sardinian lacks it, the noun was formed after Sardinian split off.^[7]

The noun is pan-Romance: Old French oint (“lard”) (modern French oing), Occitan onch, Catalan unt, Spanish unto, Portuguese unto and Romanian unt (“butter”).^[4][8] The sense “butter” is also northern Italian and Friulian.^[8]

The Latin verb goes back to a PIE verb Proto-Indo-European *h₃engʷ- (“to anoint”), with a noun for fat or butter seen in Old High German ancho (“butter”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Zingarelli dates the noun to 1287.^[10] DELI's earliest dated records are the grease or dripping that flavours food, in the Fiore at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries, and the adjective in Dante's Inferno (1300–1313), where Cerberus has a beard unta e atra “greasy and black”.^[3][11]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian unto was the participle of anointing and oiling as well as an adjective: in Boccaccio two men are così unti “oiled like this” before they come to grips.^[2] As a noun it meant a greasy substance in a 14th-century treatise on horse medicine, and the fat that drips from cooking meat.^[3] Boccaccio used unto in jest for a capon.^[11][10]

The religious sense comes from the anointing of kings and priests: l'unto del Signore “the Lord's anointed” is in the 14th-century Bible translation, and unto alone, for Christ, too.^[3] Battisti and Alessio call it a calque of Greek christós.^[12] The noun unto “one consecrated” is recorded from 1840.^[3]

The proverb bocca unta non può dir di no says that one who has accepted favours can't speak against the giver.^[11][13] Dare l'unto “to flatter” is figurative.^[14][1]

Timeline

• 1287 – Zingarelli's date for the noun.^[10]
• Late 13th or early 14th century – The Fiore uses unto for cooking fat.^[3]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses the adjective in the Inferno.^[3]
• 14th century – L'unto del Signore in the Bible translation; the noun for grease in a treatise on horse medicine.^[3]
• 1840 – Unto “one consecrated” is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. greasy: smeared or stained with fat or oil: un grembiule tutto unto.^[15][16][17]
2. (of food) Soaked in oil.^[16][17]
3. (religion) Consecrated by anointing with holy oil.^[16]

Noun

1. grease: a fatty or oily substance, or a stain of it: una macchia d’unto sulla cravatta.^[15][16][10]
2. Fat or juice from cooking food, especially meat, used as a dressing.^[15][16][13]
3. (religion) One anointed in God's name as king or priest: l'unto del Signore, and by antonomasia Christ, the Messia.^[16][10][14]

Word family

• untume
• untuoso
• untuosità
• unticcio
• bisunto

Related words

• ungere
• unguento
• unzione
• Latin unctus

Usage notes

Unto is also the past participle of ungere.^[15][10] Unto e bisunto means filthy with grease.^[15][10][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 21, 559
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
7. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3955
13. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
16. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
17. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse