unctuosity
(ʌŋktjuːˈɒsɪtɪ)
Forms: 4–5 vnctuosite, 6 -yte, 6–7 -itie, 7 -ity; 6 vnctuositee, 7 unctuositie, -ocity, 7– unctuosity.
[a. OF. unctuosite (F. onctuosité), or ad. med.L. unctuōsitas, f. unctuōs-us unctuous: see -ity. Cf. It. untuosità, untosità, Sp. untuosidad, Pg. unctuosidade.]
1. Unctuousness; oiliness, greasiness.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth De P.R. xix. xxxiii. (Bodl. MS.), For vnctuosite leide to þe tunge openeþ swiþe & dissolueþ, & sotel substaunce entreþ ful swiþe. c 1400 tr. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh. 98 Swetnesse, bitternesse, saltnesse, & vnctuosite. 1539 Elyot Cast. Helthe (1541) 37 Whay,..by the vnctuositee of the butter,..is both moist and norishing. 1562 Boorde Dyetary xiii. E j, The vnctuosyte of it doth..augmente the heate of the lyuer. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 558 A certaine unctuositie or fattinesse it carrieth with it. 1644 Digby Nat. Bodies xix. §8. 173 They haue a high degree of aqueous humidity ioyned with their vnctuosity. 1712 tr. Pomet's Hist. Drugs I. 102 The more nitrous and fossile the Salts are, the more Unctuosity they have. 1756 C. Lucas Ess. Waters II. 58 The gentlemen who talk of..unctuosity in sea water. 1805 Saunders Min. Waters 487 Inhabitants of hot climates, protected by the greater unctuosity of their skin,..are enabled to lead an almost amphibious life. 1873 Beeton's Dict. Comm., Musk..comes to us dry, with a kind of unctuosity. |
2. fig. Unctuous religiosity or complacency.
| 1884 Tennyson Becket iii. iii, From whence there puffed out such an incense of unctuosity into the nostrils of our Gods of Church and State. 1885 Spectator 22 Aug. 1114/4 The author's style,..its well-known grace, and its at least equally well-known unctuosity. |