unctuosity

unctuosity

English

Noun

unctuosity (usually uncountable, plural unctuosities)

1. The state or characteristic of being unctuous.
   • 1884, Alfred Tennyson, Becket, act 3, sc. 3:

     Then followed the thunder of the captains and the shouting, and so we came on to the banquet, from whence there puffed out such an incense of unctuosity into the nostrils of our Gods of Church and State, that Lucullus or Apicius might have sniffed it in their Hades of heathenism.

   • 1909, H. H. Schroeder, "Self-Esteem and the Love of Recognition as Sources of Conduct," International Journal of Ethics, volume 19, no. 2, page 185:

     [I]n place of the bland and genial affability of genuine cordiality and good will we have the smooth and oily unctuosity of its inferior counterfeit.

Synonyms

• greasiness, oiliness, unctuousness