Etymology Dictionary

ANOINT,  to smear with ointment.  (F.,—L.)   Wyclif has anoyntidist, Acts, iv. 27, from M.E. verb anointen or anoynten; see Prompt. Parv. p. 11.   Chaucer has anoint as a past participle, Prol. 191.   It is clear that anoint was orig. a past-participial form, but was afterwards lengthened into anointed, thus suggesting the infin. anointen.   Both forms, anoynt and anoynted, occur in the Wycliffe Bible, Gen. l. 3; Numb. vi. 3.   All the forms are also written with initial e, viz. enoint, enointed, enointen; and the true starting-point in Eng. is the pp. enoint, anointed.—O.F. enoint, anointed, pp. of enoindre, to anoint.   O.F. en- (Lat. in-, upon, on); and oindre, to smear, anoint.—Lat. ungere, to smear, pp. unctus.   See Ointment, Unction.