Pomated

Part of speech: verb, adjective

Definitions

1. Treated hair with a scented, greasy styling product so that it lay smooth or shone
2. Smoothed or glossed hair with a fragrant oily cream, often to keep it neatly in place
3. Coated the hair with a perfumed grease or wax to give it a sleek, glossy finish

Etymology: "Pomated" is the past tense of "pomate," which describes hair or skin smoothed with a greasy scented ointment. The ointment itself is named for the apple. Its ancestor is Latin "pōmum," meaning "fruit" or "apple," and the Medieval Latin "pomatum" was a word for both cider and a fruit-based ointment, which is how the same name came to cover two very different drinks and salves. The word did not stay in the kitchen. "Pomatum" and "pomade" are doublets, meaning two forms that split off from the same root and entered English by different routes, and "pomace," the pulp left after apples are pressed for cider, shares that ancestry too. So a fragrant hair product and a heap of crushed apples are, etymologically, relatives.

Synonyms: grease, oil, slick