Third-person singular present tense of 'anoint'; applies oil or ointment to someone or something, usually for religious or ceremonial purposes.
From Old French 'oindrë' (to anoint), derived from Latin 'ungere' (to anoint/smear). The verb has remained remarkably stable across 800+ years of English.
The verb 'anoint' appears in some of English's most famous texts—the Bible, Shakespeare, legal documents—because it described something people actually did regularly. When someone 'anoints' a successor, it still carries echoes of that sacred, ceremonial weight.
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