unguent

English

WOTD – 25 June 2006

Alternative forms

• onguent

Etymology

(deprecated template usage)

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin unguentum (“ointment”), from unguō (“I smear with ointment”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Indo-European *h₃engʷ- (“to salve, anoint”). Cognates include Old Prussian anctan, Old High German ancho (German anke (“butter”)), Welsh ymenyn (“butter”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʌŋɡwənt/, (nonstandard) /ʌnd͡ʒ(u)ənt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

unguent (plural unguents)

1. Any cream containing medicinal ingredients applied to the skin for therapeutic purposes.
   • 1809-1812 — William Combe, Tour of Doctor Syntax in Search of the Picturesque

     "Alas!" said Syntax, "could I pop / Just now, upon a blacksmith's shop, / Whose cooling unguents would avail / To save poor Grizzle's ears and tail!"

   • 1853 — Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Golden Fleece

     So she put a golden box into his hand, and directed him how to apply the perfumed unguent which it contained, and where to meet her at midnight.

   • 1890 — Arthur Conan Doyle, A Literary Mosaic

     Thou knowest of old that my temper is somewhat choleric, and my tongue not greased with that unguent which oils the mouths of the lip-serving lords of the land.

Translations

cream applied to the skin for a therapeutic purpose — see ointment

See also

• medicine
• ointment

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Latin

Verb

(deprecated template usage) unguent

1. third-person plural future active indicative of unguō