unguent

English

WOTD – 25 June 2006

Alternative forms

• onguent (archaic)

Etymology

From Latin unguentum (“ointment”), from unguō (“I smear with ointment”), from 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): /ˈʌŋɡjuənt/, (nonstandard) /ʌnd͡ʒ(u)ənt/, /ˈʌŋɡwənt/

• 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!"

   • a. 1864, 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.

Related terms

English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₃engʷ- (0 c, 9 e)

Translations

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

Adjective

unguent (not comparable)

1. Taking the form of a cream or ointment.
   • 1922 October, T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot, “Part II. A Game of Chess.”, in The Waste Land, 1st book edition, New York, N.Y.: Boni and Liveright, published December 1922, →OCLC, page 18:

     In vials of ivory and coloured glass / Unstoppered, lurked her strange synthetic perfumes, / Unguent, powdered, or liquid— […]

See also

• medicine
• ointment

Latin

Verb

unguent

1. third-person plural future active indicative of unguō

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin unguentum.

Noun

unguent n (plural unguente)

1. ointment

Declension

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	unguent	unguentul		unguente	unguentele
genitive-dative	unguent	unguentului		unguente	unguentelor
vocative	unguentule			unguentelor