unguent

Definition

Any cream containing medicinal ingredients applied to the skin for therapeutic purposes.

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”).

Example Sentences

• ""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!""
• "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."
• "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."