Today’s word: Oleaginous
(adjective)
- Resembling or having the properties of oil : oily ; also : containing or producing oil
- Marked by an offensively ingratiating manner or quality
– Merriam-Webster online dictionary
I became aware of the word in an EW review of the new season of Damages:
More mystery envelops yet another new character — Deadwood’s Timothy Olyphant, as an oleaginous member of Ellen’s grief-counseling group.
The writer means it in the second sense. It’s a lovely word, and a nice alternative to the similar unctuous. Another reason I’m happy to have so many words in English.
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January 12th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Funny that unctuous and oleaginous have the same metaphorical meaning. What is it about oil that we find it both ingratiating and offensive? Oil makes machines run more smoothly and makes foods a little more tasty, and yet we use it as an adjective to mean bad things. Incidentally, in Japanese if you are engaged in small talk you are said to be “selling oil.” I never found out why, no matter how many people I asked.
January 12th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
“Willard rises, wraith-like, from the oleaginous waters”, from Apocalypse Now – leading to my favourite shot in the film as Willard prepares to kill Colonel Kurtz.
January 12th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Oh, they say Deadwood’s Timothy Olyphant but he’ll always be Go’s Timothy Olyphant to me… probably because he had his shirt off a lot.
I wonder if using oil to mean offensive is because oil and water don’t mix – and we’re mostly water?
January 12th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
the word’s very musical, but i probably would have gone to “oily” as the don’t-need-to-make-them-reach-for-Webster’s choice.
January 12th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
Funny that it seems so strange from an English perspective. In Latin-based languages- Spanish, Italian, Portuguese -is an oft-heard lingo, usually heard in relation to crops – of ‘grains and oleaginous’, with the latter referring to soy and sunflower, among others.
January 12th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
I like the word, too. But I think the EW writer was a little off. I don’t think it’s an apt description of the character (so far).