Literary notes about unctuous (AI summary)
In literature, "unctuous" is deployed with a rich duality, both to describe physical qualities and to characterize affectations in manner and speech. On one hand, authors use it to evoke a sense of literal slickness or oiliness—whether depicting a substance’s viscous texture or the buttery quality of food, as seen when fruit is described as having unctuous flesh [1][2]. On the other hand, the term often conveys a sense of ingratiating, hypocritical smoothness that masks insincerity; characters and voices may be portrayed with unctuous flattery or a saccharine politeness that ultimately reveals a superficial or self-serving nature [3][4][5]. This versatile usage allows writers to imbue descriptions with layered meaning, merging the tactile with the moral to enrich their portrayals of personality and atmosphere.
- The pale olive-trees twisting their perforated trunks on the slope of the hill gave me of their unctuous fruit.
— from The Revolt of the Angels by Anatole France - Skin, smooth and unctuous to the touch, dark green at first, becoming pale as it ripens, and sometimes with a faint blush near the stalk.
— from British Pomology Or, the History, Description, Classification, and Synonymes, of the Fruits and Fruit Trees of Great Britain by Robert Hogg - “By the genius of Augustus,” exclaimed the patron, “thou makest me turn away my head at thy unctuous flattery.
— from Perpetua. A Tale of Nimes in A.D. 213 by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould - In this they show a strange contradiction to their dickering habits in trade and their "unctuous rectitude" in stealing continents.
— from The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, Volume I by Burton Jesse Hendrick - His intellectuality is not devoid of that unctuous complacency of a parson,—like all priests, he becomes dangerous only when he loves.
— from The Twilight of the Idols; or, How to Philosophize with the Hammer. The Antichrist by Nietzsche
