Other forms: anointed, anointing, anoints
To anoint is to smear somebody with oil in a sacred ceremony. A mark on the head, and the thing is done.
It is one of the oldest religious acts recorded, and it survives in the coronation of a British monarch, where the anointing is considered the sacred heart of the ceremony and is traditionally hidden from view. Priests are anointed and so are the dying. There is a wry figurative use in politics and business, since anointing a successor means choosing them without any contest at all, and the word implies exactly that lack of process.
Anoint began as a past participle. Middle English took Old French enoint, the participle of enoindre, to anoint, and then built a fresh English verb out of it.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₃engʷ-
Old French
enoint
Middle English
enointen
English, today
anoint
Built from
From Middle English enointen, anointen, borrowed from Old French enoint, past participle of enoindre (“to anoint”). a doublet of inunct.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Man Called Ove, A Song of Ice and Fire
First appears in chapter 28 of A Man Called Ove.
Practise this word