Suety

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Having a texture that is slick or oily and often resembles fat
2. Describing something that is excessively rich or greasy in nature, commonly associated with certain culinary items
3. Possessing a slippery or oily surface often characteristic of animal fat ; characterized by an abundance of fat or oil, making it heavy and indulgent

Etymology: "Suety" is about as plain as English etymology gets: it is the adjective "suet" with the suffix "-y" attached, meaning "having the qualities of" or "characterised by" the thing named. Suet is the hard, crumbly fat that surrounds an animal's kidneys and loins, and "suety" describes anything containing or resembling that fat. The suffix does the work here. English has long attached "-y" to nouns to make adjectives, so "stone" becomes "stony" and "cloud" becomes "cloudy." "Suety" follows that same pattern, so a reader who knows "suet" can work out the meaning without a dictionary.

Synonyms: greasy, oily

Antonyms: dry, lean