unction

What it means

1. countableuncountableAn ointment or salve.

   The King himſelf the ſacred Unction made, / As King by Office, and as Prieſt by Trade: […]

   c. 1678 (date written; published 1682), J[ohn] Dryden, “Mac Flecknoe”, in Mac Flecknoe: A Poem. […] With Spencer’s Ghost: Being a Satyr Concerning Poetry. […], London: […] H[enry] Hills, […], published 1709, →OCLC, page 6

2. countableuncountableA religious or ceremonial anointing.

   To be heir, and to be king / By sacred unction, thy deserved right.

   1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

3. countableuncountableA balm or something that soothes.

In a sentence

The King himſelf the ſacred Unction made, / As King by Office, and as Prieſt by Trade: […]

c. 1678 (date written; published 1682), J[ohn] Dryden, “Mac Flecknoe”, in Mac Flecknoe: A Poem. […] With Spencer’s Ghost: Being a Satyr Concerning Poetry. […], London: […] H[enry] Hills, […], published 1709, →OCLC, page 6

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Indo-European*h₃engʷ-
2. Proto-Italic*ongʷō
3. Latinunguō
4. Latinungō
5. Latinunctiō
6. Englishunction

Borrowed from Latin unctiō.