a. Obs. Also 5–6 vnctius, vnctyous, 6–7 vnctious. [f. L. unct-um ointment: see -IOUS.] = UNCTUOUS a. 1. (Common c. 1600–1725).
1477. Norton, Ord. Alch., v. (MS. Ashm. 1445), fol. 67. Þe same degrees … Vnctius sapor engender euer shall.
1542. Boorde, Dyetary, xiii. (1870), 265. Euery thyng that is vnctious … doth swymme aboue in the brynkes of the stomacke.
1594. Carew, Huarte’s Exam. Wits, vi. 84. That [moisture] which springs from the aire maketh them to prooue vnctious and ful of oyle and fat.
1639. T. de Gray, Expert Farrier, 274. I will never use any other oyle or vnctious matter in any medicine.
1697. Tryon, Way to Health, vi. (ed. 3), 100. Whereby it is made more Spirituous than other Waters, and of a fat unctious Quality.
1764. Harmer, Observ., 408. Lamps that are supplied with more than ordinary quantities of oyl, or other unctious substances.
fig. 1645. Quarles, Sol. Recant., VI. 66. Or is she gone to oyle the wings of Time With unctious pleasures in some foraine Clime? Ibid. (1646), Judgem. & Mercy, Wks. (Grosart), I. 69. Steepe thy stupid senses in unctious, in delightful sports.
Hence † Unctiousness. Obs.
1560. Whitehorne, Ord. Souldiours, 27. So that nothinge else be burnte but … certaine grosse vnctiousnes of the saltepeter.
a. 1661. Fuller, Worthies, Warwick., III. (1662), 115. It burneth … clear and bright, as if the Sappe thereof had a fire-feeding Unctiousness therein.
