unguent

Etymology

From Latin unguentum (“ointment”), from unguō (“I smear with ointment”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃engʷ- (“to salve, anoint”). Cognates include Old Prussian anctan, Old High German ancho (German Anke (“butter”)), Welsh ymenyn (“butter”).

noun

1. Any cream containing medicinal ingredients applied to the skin for therapeutic purposes.
   "Alas!" said Syntax, "could I pop / Just now, upon a blacksmith's shop, / Whose cooling unguents would avail / To save poor Grizzle's ears and tail!" 1809-1812, William Combe, Tour of Doctor Syntax in Search of the Picturesque
   Thou knowest of old that my temper is somewhat choleric, and my tongue not greased with that unguent which oils the mouths of the lip-serving lords of the land. 1890, Arthur Conan Doyle, A Literary Mosaic