UNK-choo-uhs
(adjective) Excessively flattering or insincerely earnest.
His unctuous compliments felt more like manipulation than kindness.
Fun Fact
Originally used to describe oily or greasy textures, “unctuous” now refers to personalities that are slick in the worst way. Often applied to salespeople, sycophants, or politicians, it suggests a surface-level charm masking self-interest or deceit. If someone seems “too nice,” they might just be unctuous.
dih-SKRY
(verb) To catch sight of something difficult to see; to discover or detect something by careful observation.
After an hour of scanning the hillside, she finally descried the outline of the elk standing motionless among the trees.
From Old French descrier, meaning “to proclaim” or “to cry out about” — which itself evolved to mean “to spot and announce.” The word entered English in the 14th century. It shares roots with “describe” and “decry,” all descending from Latin clamare (“to cry out”) through Old French. The journey from “crying out” to “spotting at a distance” reflects how scouts and lookouts would cry out when they spotted something on the horizon.
Fun Fact
“Descry” was a staple of Romantic and Victorian poetry, used by Keats, Tennyson, and Wordsworth for its particular quality — it implies not just seeing, but discovering something faint or far away. It has nearly disappeared from everyday speech but survives in literary writing. Interestingly, it’s often confused with “decry” (to openly criticize), which is a completely different word — a mix-up that has probably contributed to “descry” being gradually abandoned by everyday writers who’d rather not risk the confusion.
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