WordWealth: unctuous

unc·tu·ous , adj.

1. characterized by excessive piousness or moralistic fervor, esp. in an affected manner; excessively smooth, suave, or smug. 2. of the nature of or characteristic of an unguent or ointment; oily; greasy. 3. having an oily or soapy feel, as certain minerals. [1350–1400; ME < ML ūnctuōsus, equiv. to L ūnctu(s) act of anointing (ung(uere) to smear, anoint + -tus suffix of v. action) + -ōsus -OUS]

—unctu·ous·ly, adv.

—unctu·ous·ness, unc·tu·os·i·ty , n. (Random House Webster's, Unabridged). Look at Thesaurus

There are notable bits scattered throughout. In 1925 Winston observed, "It is now a convention that foreign affairs are only to be treated in unctuous platitudes wh [sic] bear no relation to what is really going on. This is called 'Open diplomacy'." The notes and connecting passages provided by Ms. Soames do effective service and are often sharp and funny. They should not be skipped. —— Book Brief Reviews; Phoebe-Lou Adams; the Atlantic; April 1999

The whole point about Mrs. Stowe, for most of us, is not her inaccuracy or her egregious breach of faith, about which Lady Byron's grandson was so bitter and contemptuous, nor yet the fact that she was ultimately responsible for Lord Lovelace's impotent volume; not even the gusto with which (though that is somewhat overrated by Swinburne) she set herself, with unctuous explicitness, to blacken the poet's character. Let us be temperate about Mrs. Stowe and admit that, while her position was contemptible, her purpose was not, like Mrs. Behn's, pornographic. The interesting fact, for us, as I say, is other. —— Katherine Fullerton Gerould in Men, Women, and the Byron-Complex; The Atlantic; Sept. 1922

Something in the unctuous ease of Morris's listy sentences turns out to be highly addictive, and ultimately I found myself regarding her prose the way she often regards the places she writes about: with an exasperation at faults so endemic that it shades into a resignation that ultimately isn't all that different from delight. Some writers you just have to accommodate yourself to. No matter how much they drive you crazy, how inexpungeable their flaws -- Ruskin, Dreiser and Tom Wolfe come to mind -- you topple before their enormous energy, and if you have any feeling for writing at all, you have no choice but to submit. —— Craig Seligman in 'Travel'; The New York Times; Dec. 7, 2003
 

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