Unctuous

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Dr. Goodword
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Unctuous

Postby Dr. Goodword » Tue Dec 30, 2014 12:55 am

• unctuous •

Pronunciation: êngk-chuwês • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective

Meaning: 1. Overly charming and ingratiating, feigning sincerity, uncomfortably suave and genteel in behavior. 2. Oily, fatty, greasy, rich (food). 3. Rich in nutrients (soil).

Notes: Today's good and slippery word comes with three 'U's and two nouns, unctuosity and unctuousness. We can speak and behave unctuously (the adverb), and some of us do. Remember the three 'U's, and do not to slip into the habit of misspelling this word unctious.

In Play: Today this word is used primarily in its first, metaphorically oily sense: "I was very uncomfortable as one unctuous word after another slithered through Nick O'Lodian's lips." However, the other meanings remain available for all occasions: "The lips of May O'Naise were unctuous from all the morsels of barbeque that had passed through them over the course of the meal."

Word History: Today's Good Word came via Old French unctueus from Latin unctus, the past participle of the verb unguere "to anoint, to oil". Remnants of it today remain in French onctueux and Portuguese, Italian and Spanish untuoso. The same root turned up in Sanskrit anakti "to anoint, smear" but we find nothing similar in Germanic languages. Some etymologists think that Latin might have borrowed unguere from an Old Germanic word anke "butter", which is no longer around. The Latin word for "ointment", unguentum, became oignement in French, which English borrowed as ointment. But that didn't prevent us from borrowing the same word directly from Latin, too, as unguent "salve". (Without sounding unctuous in the least, we would like to thank Jan Arps of Greensboro, NC, for anointing our series with today's very Good Word.)
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Slava
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Re: Unctuous

Postby Slava » Tue Dec 30, 2014 10:25 am

I wonder how many other greasy, gooey words we have out there for the smooth talkers and glad-handers. Here are two of them, as presented here on the Agora:

Smarmy

Oleaginous
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George Kovac

Re: Unctuous

Postby George Kovac » Tue Dec 30, 2014 11:25 am

I have always found "unction" to be a beguiling word.

I first encountered it as a child in Catholic school, where one of the seven sacraments was then called "extreme unction," a phrase that I later understood to be a crude non-idiomatic translation of the Latin (roughly "last anointing"). So weird to make 8-year-olds learn a frightening phrase like "extreme unction," which sounded horrible and which (at that time) was a practice invoked only for the dying. Today the Catholic Church uses the more benign and descriptive phrase "anointing of the sick" for this sacrament and encourages its use for serious, not only life-threatening, illness or trauma. Non-Catholics usually refer to the practice as "last rites."

As an adult, I learned the broader meanings of "unction" and its oily history. I still thought the word sounded kind of neat, and appealingly weird. I developed this mnemonic usage that enabled me to ambiguously incorporate both of the word's principal uses (Definitions 1 and 2 above) as well as hark back (ironically) to the dark language of the Baltimore Catechism of my childhood: "The annoying waiter served our meal with extreme unction."

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Slava
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Re: Unctuous

Postby Slava » Tue Dec 30, 2014 11:34 am

Good one, by George! :D
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

LukeJavan8
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Re: Unctuous

Postby LukeJavan8 » Wed Dec 31, 2014 1:17 pm

"Last Rites" is the one always used in TV shows and movies.
Makes you wonder why they don't do any research before
writing scripts.
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Re: Unctuous

Postby misterdoe » Wed Jun 03, 2015 1:36 pm

This word makes me think of game show hosts and talk show hosts on various skit comedy shows, like Bill Hader's recurring host character from past SNL seasons (always captioned "first broadcast in 1964" :D) , or even Muppet host Guy Smiley from Sesame Street.


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