Spikes in the price of other kinds of oil
This has been an extraordinary year in American politics: There, was that circumspect enough?
But without an election campaign going on in the United States, we might focus more on turmoil in the financial markets. have caused much of it. Low oil prices are seen as a good thing, until they are not, when they become a sign of slower growth in China. Then after oil prices have 鈥溾�� back 鈥渦p鈥� 鈥� somewhat 鈥� the capital markets do their happy dance again.
There have been spikes in the markets for various kinds of rhetorical oil as well, as commentators have reached for metaphors to describe politicians they don鈥檛 like.
Merriam-Webster reported a spike in look-ups for last month after wrote of one of the presidential candidates, 鈥淗is rhetorical style will come across to young and independent voters as smarmy and oleaginous.鈥�
M-W defines the word as meaning, first, 鈥渞esembling or having the properties of oil,鈥� and secondly as 鈥渕arked by an offensively ingratiating manner or quality.鈥�
An 鈥渋ngratiating鈥� manner isn鈥檛 supposed to offend 鈥� it鈥檚 鈥渃apable of winning favor,鈥� as in 鈥渁n ingratiating smile,鈥� to borrow an example from WordNet. But has also come to mean 鈥渃alculated to please or gain favor,鈥� and the M-W definition of oleaginous relies on this second sense: The calculation offends.
As there are many types and grades of petroleum, so there are many oil metaphors in political discourse.
Slick goes back centuries. It鈥檚 etymologically about smoothness rather than oil. But the word has long associations with oil 鈥� it鈥檚 been used in the sense of 鈥渙il slick鈥� since 1849, according to . And slick has been applied to enough politicians that Wikipedia has a 鈥溾�� disambiguation page.
Then there鈥檚 smarmy. notes, 鈥淪omething smarmy will often ooze with self-satisfaction and insincerity. Much like its synonyms unctuous and slick, smarmy has a history that starts with a meaning of literal slipperiness or oiliness.鈥� And note that someone peddling useless goods or, more likely today, in the knowledge economy, useless advice is a 鈥渟nake oil salesman,鈥� and not, say, a 鈥渟nake powder salesman.鈥�
Unctuous has a particular connection to false piety. comments that it derives from a Latin word meaning 鈥渁nointed with oil鈥� 鈥� a reference to a religious rite.
A Google News search for unctuous reveals the word in surprisingly active use in food writing as well as politics. A in Chicago rhapsodizing about mascarpone, for instance, calls it 鈥渂uttery-rich, soft and beautifully unctuous.鈥�
Such usage has prompted a cri de coeur from a writer who checked the M-W definition and observed of unctuous, 鈥淭o us, it looks like it originates in tricky, slimy and gross.... Let鈥檚 please all work together to find a replacement. And in the meantime, leave our sea urchin and soft boiled eggs out of it, thank you very much.鈥�
