Word of the day: unctuous

I think most of the time I get off my duff and deem a word to be blog worthy, it is because I’ve hit that word several times in rapid succession, either in a book, web site, conversation, or absinthe-induced hallucinogenic stupor. So I suppose in some sense the words choose themselves, and I am just a vessel for their expression. And hey, I’m OK with that I guess; at my age I’ve become accustomed to being used.

The word that is currently raising its hand and squirming out “Oooh! Oooh! Me! Me!” has popped up twice in my recent quotidian adventures. First off, I stumbled upon it in an entry about John Edwards at the Huffington Post (a regular haunt of mine). Under a section titled Get Off The Bus And Go Skinny Dipping, the author dispenses this bit of advice about how to win the early primaries this year:

The biggest surprise this campaign season has been the unwillingness of the candidates, other than Ron Paul, to reveal his or her true selves in unexpected and unscripted ways. You can use social media but it still doesn’t make you authentic. And if there is anything that rubs people the wrong way about you, no offense John, it’s your unctuous lawyerlyness. You’ve got to close the deal that you should be the next POTUS with 50,000 people in the next three weeks. Micah Sifry, one of the big brains behind TechPresident, suggests a live webcast every morning between now and the election and talk to voters about your day, your views, your hopes, your fears. It doesn’t matter what the topic is, it’s an opportunity to inform and inspire people and show them your real, intelligent, authentic self. It’s critically important that you engage your supporters, listen to them, and recruit them to be your foot soldiers for the final push.

Ah, the chances of seeing the real nature of a politician is akin to seeing a manticore driving a Ferrari on the highway; a very unlikely event that will register as a mere flash of something surreal, yet recognizable. Something you’re not quite sure really even exists, but if it does, you’re glad it passed by quickly and you hope to never get so to its inscrutable nature and sharp jaws again.

This is the usage of unctuous that I’m used to seeing; something slippery or conniving. However, later this evening I was lapping up an early Christmas present to myself, Chloé Doutre-Roussel‘s The Chocolate Connoisseur. In a section describing her tactile habits of measuring up the quality of a particular chocolate, she notes:

Is it soft or hard? Sticky, grainy, sandy or velvety? Crisp or crunchy? Getting to know the feel of a chocolate will help you recognise [sic] it again in the future. It will also help you to identify quality. The smoother the texture, the more unctuous it will be in the mouth. the finer the chocolate’s particles, the greater the aromas you will find in it.

This usage didn’t sit very well with me; at least I didn’t expect oiliness to be a quality you’d normally shoot for in a fine chocolate. So, I turned to the dictionary and lo, what did I find:

unctuous

1. Characterized by affected, exaggerated, or insincere earnestness: “the unctuous, complacent court composer who is consumed with envy and self-loathing” (Rhoda Koenig).
2. Having the quality or characteristics of oil or ointment; slippery.
3. Containing or composed of oil or fat.
4. Abundant in organic materials; soft and rich: unctuous soil.

While the slipperiness aspect certain does tie in to what I think Ms. Doutre-Roussel was getting at, it is the fourth definition here that seemed to ring with me. Leaving the touch of the chocolate behind for a moment, fine chocolate should contain a bit of the soul from whence it came, a terroir if you will. How else can one really exude that erudite affectation if you don’t lace your review with phrases like, “a heady banana aroma,” or “a certain loam in the lower ranges, as if you breathing in the Sumatran air itself,” or even, “Is that raspberries or pomegranates that flirt with you during the long finish?” Unctuous is a fine word, with a rarefied usage, that fits such highbrow activities as chocolate snootery to a T.

Ah, and now that I’ve gotten that down, off to bed. ‘Tis late, and we have 8-10″ of fresh powder that my newly-waxed board is anxiously awaiting. Perhaps once I get back, and get done with my LDAP perl scripting, and get done building up a couple of new servers, and done getting the latest Ubuntu build wrapped up, and get done Christmas shopping, and get done watching my latest Netflix arrival (The Battle of Algiers), I’ll blog about the wonderful pear tart that I made last night, which promptly and quite accidentally turned into a pear taco when I tried to remove it from my sil-pat. Oh well, shape be damned, the thing was quite delicious!

Yours yours yours,

-c