a. Also 4–7 vnctuous, 6 ounctuous; 5, 7 vnctuos. [ad. med.L. unctuōs-us, f. L. unct-um ointment, f. unct-, ppl. stem of ung(u)ĕre to anoint. Cf. OF. unctueus (F. onctueux), It. and Sp. untuoso, Pg. unctuoso.]
1. Of the nature or quality of an unguent or ointment; oily, greasy.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), I. 113. Þe fruit of olyue is ful of liȝt, likynge, and vnctuous.
1528. Paynell, Salerne’s Regim., b ij b. The vnctuous fleme whiche is engendred by mynglynge, of vnctuous bloud and fleme.
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 293. Gummes … and other vnctuous frutes and trees growing in hotte regions.
1604. F. Hering, Mod. Defence, 22. Sallet oile, butter, or any other vnctuous things.
a. 1691. Boyle, Hist. Air (1692), 202. As if all the unctuous parts that were wanting in the dried portion of the cheese had retired thither.
1733. Phil. Trans., XXXVIII. 64. When this Operation succeeds rightly, there comes forth, First, a thick unctuous Oil.
1818. Art Preserv. Feet, 105. The unctuous matter which exudes from excretory vessels.
1875. C. C. Blake, Zool., 152. The poison itself is an unctuous gelatinous fluid.
b. Of meat: Greasy, fat, rich. Now arch.
1495. Trevisa’s Barth. De P. R., XIX. xlv. 888. Vnctuous meete fletyth aboue for the lyghtnesse therof.
1539. Elyot, Cast. Helthe (1541), 18 b. Meates … fatte and vnctuous, nourisheth, and maketh soluble.
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 147. When their fingers are imbrued with any ounctuous meates.
1610. B. Jonson, Alch., II. ii. The swelling vnctuous paps Of a fat pregnant sow.
1650. Bulwer, Anthrop., 241. They feed upon unctuous and sweet meats.
1821. Lamb, Elia, I. Grace before Meat. Those unctuous morsels of deer’s flesh.
transf. 1675. Grew, Disc. Tastes Plants, i. § 13. Contrary to an Unctuous Taste, are Astringent and Pungent.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 162/2. The exquisite and unctuous taste which this excellent mollusk gives.
c. Characterized by the presence of oil or fat.
1641. Milton, Reform., II. Wks. 1851, III. 66. Warming their Palace Kitchins, and from thence their unctuous and epicurean paunches, with the almes of the blind.
1768. [see 1 d].
1791. Cowper, Iliad, II. 664. Pallas rear’d him: her own unctuous fane She made his habitation.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., iv. There was something in the sound of the last word, which roused the unctuous boy.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Charac., Wks. (Bohn), II. 62. English day-labourers … are of an unctuous texture.
d. Unctuous sucker: (see quot.).
1768. Pennant, Brit. Zool. (1776), III. 135. Unctuous Sucker. This fish takes the name of sea snail from the soft and unctuous texture of its body, resembling that of the land snail.
2. Of ground or soil: Of a soft adhesive nature; fat, rich.
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 227. As fat and vnctuous groundes … yelde a fast and firme moysture.
1675. Evelyn, Terra (1676), 30. Good and excellent Earth should be … not too unctuous nor too lean. Ibid. (1693), De la Quint. Compl. Gard., I. 18. Some [soils] are Unctuous and Sticking together.
1707. Mortimer, Husb., 68. A soft unctuous Chalk, which is the best for Lands.
1777. Robertson, Hist. Amer. (1778), I. 474. Their hunger is so great as compels them to eat … a kind of unctuous earth.
1813. Bakewell, Introd. Geol. (1815), 297. When the matrix, or the substance which principally fills veins, is a soft unctuous clay.
1839. Murchison, Silurian System, 435. A layer of unctuous shale or fuller’s earth.
1867. D. G. Mitchell, Rural Studies, 293. There are farms I know, unctuous with an accumulated fertility.
3. Of vapors, etc.: Partaking of the nature of oil or grease.
1606. N. B[axter], Sydney’s Ourania, D 3 b. For Shepheards fayne … That from Bodyes buried in Summer season, An vnctuos vapour, hot and dry, doth rise.
1610. B. Jonson, Alch., II. iii. A humide exhalation, which we call Materia liquida, or the vnctuous water.
1635–56. Cowley, Davideis, III. Note xl. Lambent fire is, A thin unctuous exhalation made out of the Spirits of Animals.
1712. Blackmore, Creation, IV. 173. Evening trains of unctuous vapours.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., I. 390. Falling stars, which are thought to be no more than unctuous vapours, raised from the earth to small heights.
1812. Sir H. Davy, Chem. Philos., Introd. 19. Unctuous or inflammable gas.
1820. Shelley, Sensit. Pl., III. 74. Unctuous meteors from spray to spray … flitted in broad noonday Unseen.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, xviii. And an unctuous steam came floating out.
4. Having an oily or greasy feel or appearance. Also of feel, touch, etc.
1668. Wilkins, Real Char., 82. Being of an unctuous touch, and used for Sallets.
1804. Abernethy, Surg. Obs., 44. But it is not at all unctuous to the touch.
1828. J. E. Smith, Eng. Flora, II. 9. Pubescence mealy, friable, and unctuous.
1863. Hawthorne, Our Old Home (1879), 96. Excellently carved in oak, now black with time and unctuous with kitchen-smoke.
1876. Duhring, Dis. Skin, 17. To the touch the skin has a soft, smooth, somewhat unctuous feel.
5. Characterized by spiritual unction (in later use esp. of an assumed or superficial nature); complacently agreeable or self-satisfied: a. Of persons.
1742. Cheyne, in Byrom’s Rem. (1857), 331. I think him … more plain,… luminous, and unctuous, than any I ever met with.
1854. Poultry Chron., I. 292/2. Bland, unctuous, and rosy as they appear, they are nevertheless excessively fastidious.
1882. J. Ashton, Soc. Life Reign Q. Anne, II. 138. A Quaker could not be drawn without being caricatured into an unctuous rogue.
1896. ‘Ian Maclaren,’ Kate Carnegie, 171. A certain class of smug, self-contented, unctuous men.
b. Of speech, conduct, etc.
1822. Lamb, Elia, I. Chimney-Sweepers. It was a pleasure to see the sable younkers lick in the unctuous meat, with his more unctuous sayings.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, iv. Laying an unctuous emphasis upon the words.
1871. Morley, Carlyle, in Crit. Misc., Ser. I. 217. In the corrupt and unctuous forms of a mechanical religious profession.
