- Today's Word
Unctuous
UNK-choo-us
Definition
(adjective) Excessively smooth and flattering in a way that feels insincere; oily in manner or speech.
Example
The unctuous sales manager greeted every client with the same practiced warmth — hand on the shoulder, lingering eye contact, a laugh perfectly timed to make you feel chosen — until you realized he did it with everyone.
Word Origin
Unctuous derives from the Medieval Latin unctuosus, meaning “greasy” or “oily,” rooted in unctum — “ointment” — from ungere, meaning “to anoint.” The same root gives us unguent and unction, the latter still used in religious contexts to describe the act of anointing with oil. It entered English in the 14th century with its literal meaning of oily or greasy texture before acquiring its figurative sense of someone whose excessive smoothness and flattery feels slippery and insincere — the social equivalent of something you can’t quite get a grip on.
Fun Fact
The religious roots of unctuous run deeper than they first appear. “Extreme unction” — now called the Anointing of the Sick — was one of the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church, performed by anointing a dying person with consecrated oil. The ceremony was considered so solemn and sacred that using unctuous to describe someone slippery and insincere carried a particular sting in earlier centuries — it implied their smoothness was a kind of desecration of something that was supposed to be genuine and holy. The gap between sacred anointing and oily flattery is exactly the distance the word has traveled.