different between onguent vs unguent

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French onguent.

Noun

onguent (plural onguents)

1. Archaic form of unguent.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin unguentum (“ointment, unguent”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??.???/

Noun

onguent m (plural onguents)

1. ointment; salve; unguent

Further reading

• “onguent” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Old French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin unguentum (“ointment, unguent”).

Noun

onguent m (oblique plural onguenz or onguentz, nominative singular onguenz or onguentz, nominative plural onguent)

1. ointment; salve; unguent

English

Alternative forms

• onguent

Etymology

From Latin unguentum (“ointment”), from ungu? (“I smear with ointment”), from Proto-Indo-European *h?eng?- (“to salve, anoint”). Cognates include Old Prussian anctan, Old High German ancho (German Anke (“butter”)), Welsh ymenyn (“butter”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /????w?nt/, (nonstandard) /?nd??(u)?nt/

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!"

   • 1853 — 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

Translations

See also

• medicine
• ointment

Latin

Verb

unguent

1. third-person plural future active indicative of ungu?

Romanian

Etymology

From Latin unguentum

Noun

unguent n (plural unguente)

1. ointment

Declension