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ointment

UK/ˈɔɪntm(ə)nt/US/ˈɔɪn(t)m(ə)nt/
nounB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,638 of 15,258leans spoken

Other forms: ointments

An ointment is healing cream you rub onto sore skin. Apply the ointment, an antiseptic ointment, a tube of ointment.

It is greasier than a cream and holds moisture in better, which is why dry conditions are treated with one and weeping ones are not. A fly in the ointment means one small thing spoiling the whole. The word comes from the Latin for anointing.

British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). Download this book for free at http://open.bccampus.ca · CC BY 4.0

Definitions of ointment

  1. 1nounointmentA greasy healing preparation rubbed onto the skin.B2

    “Rub this ointment onto the burn twice a day.”

ointment is a medicine.

Also accepted in games: balm

Where it comes from

Old French oignement comes from oindre, to anoint, from Latin unguere. Unguent is the same root.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *h₃engʷ- — to smear, anoint

  2. Latin

    ungō — I anoint

  3. Old French

    oignement — an anointing

  4. Middle English

    oinement

  5. English, today

    ointment

Built from

  • ongier · Old French — to anoint

A later form (as if oint + ment) of Middle English oinement, borrowed from Old French oignement (“an anointing”), from oigner, oindre, ongier (“to anoint”), from Latin ungō (“I anoint”), from Proto-Indo-European h₃engʷ- (“to smear, anoint”). Partly displaced native sealf, whence modern salve.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Body & Health

Practise this word

ointment in the wild

  • Flying ointment is a substance described in European folklore and early modern witch trials as enabling witches to fly, often on broomsticks.

    Flying ointment

  • The ointment is marketed by Pfizer under the brand name Fibrolan in a variety of countries (e.g.

    Fibrinolysin

  • The drug is administered in the form of a patch or ointment that delivers the drug into the circulation for systemic effect.

    Transdermal

  • Mercurial ointment rubbed on the region of the liver.

    Zoonomia; Or, the Laws of Organic Life, Vol. II· Erasmus Darwin

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

From Project Gutenberg, public domain. These sentences are from real books, shown to illustrate the word at work.