Word Wednesday is sharing my love of words with you! I like to build my vocabulary by doing things such as: subscribing to receive a daily notification from the Dictionary.com app; flipping randomly through my physical Webster’s dictionary; playing Words With Friends 2 on my cell phone; and doing crossword puzzles.
On random Wednesdays, I’ll post a word that either I had to look up its definition when I first came across it, or I simply like the way the word sounds or its meaning. Some related items I may post on Wednesdays might be: a picture that represents Wednesday’s word; a scene or character from my book that illustrates the meaning of the word; or a quote from my novel that contains that word.
TODAY’S WORD: UNCTUOUS
Unctuous (UNGK choo us) adj: oily, both literally and figuratively, insincere. Ex: Salad oil is literally unctuous. A used-car salesman might be figuratively unctuous that he is oily in the sense of being slick, sleazy and insincere.
–http://www.english-for-students.com/unctuous h
I think I first came across this word when someone played it during a game of Scrabble. I had no idea what the word meant, so I’m sure I challenged my opponent on this one!
One character in my novel Love, Texas — Population 2 who most certainly is unctuous is Andrea Gailton. She is a TV reporter who always asks people questions using a sincere, concerned tone, but she truly only cares about being the first one to get a juicy story–and could care less about the feelings of victims. One such instance is when she arrives on scene in a town that has been ravished by a major tornado.
“Ma’am? Do you know anyone who might be the parents of that child?”
–Andrea Gailton (Channel 72 News reporter from Love, Texas — Population 2)