• unctuous •
Pronunciation: êngk-chwês • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: 1. Overly charming and ingratiating, pretending 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.)
UNCTUOUS
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UNCTUOUS
Last edited by Dr. Goodword on Thu Jul 24, 2008 11:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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If one uses too much lip balm, does that make them "salvy"?
Savvy people should not have salvy lips.
Or would we keep the e, salvey?
Also, can we come up with a way of describing what it means to be "uncomfortably gentile in behavior"?
Savvy people should not have salvy lips.
Or would we keep the e, salvey?
Also, can we come up with a way of describing what it means to be "uncomfortably gentile in behavior"?
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.
Prim has been around for a while.
prim
1684 (v.) "to assume a formal, precise demeanor," probably from Fr. prim "thin, small, delicate," from O.Fr. prim "fine, delicate," from L. primus "first, finest" (see prime). Attested as a noun from 1700. The adj., the sole surviving sense, is from 1709. A cant word at first; the noun sense may be the original.
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
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