Lana Citron - A Compendium Of Kisses

A look at the different religions and secular perceptions and usages of the kiss; and an exploration of the shifting nature of its status over time.

A R IDDLE

I am just two and two, I am warm, I am cold,

And the parent of numbers that cannot be told;

I am lawful, unlawfula duty, a fault:

I am often sold dear, well for nothing when bought;

An extraordinary boon, and a matter of course,

And yielded with pleasure when taken by force.

BY COWPER

T HE L ANGUAGE OF L OVE

Kiss /kis/ v. & n. v. 1. to touch with the lips, esp. as a sign of love, affection, greeting, or reverence. 2. to express (greeting or farewell) in this way. 3. absol. (of two persons) touch each others lips in this way. 4. to (also absol.) (of a pool ball, etc., in motion) lightly touch (another ball). n. 1. a touch with the lips in kissing. 2. the slight impact when one pool ball etc. lightly touches another. 3. a small sweetmeat of a piece of confectionery. Kiss and tell recount ones sexual exploits. Kiss a persons arse coarse slang, act obsequiously toward a person. Kiss away remove (tears etc.) by kissing. Kiss the dust submit abjectly; be overthrown. Kiss goodbye to colloq., accept the loss of. Kiss the ground prostrate oneself as a token of homage. Kiss off esp. N. Amer. slang, 1. dismiss, get rid of. 2. go away, die. Kiss the rod accept chastisement submissively. Kissable adj. [Old English cyssan, from Germanic].

Kisser /kiser/ n. 1. a person who kisses. 2. (orig. boxing) slang, the mouth; the face.

Kissy /kisi/ adj. colloq., given to kissing (not the kissy type).

Oscular /oskjuler/ adj. 1. of or relating to the mouth. 2. of or relating to kissing. [Latin osculum mouth, kiss, diminutive of os mouth].

Osculate /oskyuhlayt/ v. tr. 1. mathematics: (of a curve or surface) have contact of at least the second order with; have two branches with a common tangent, with each branch extending in both directions of the tangent. 2. v. intr. & tr. Joc. Kiss osculant adj., osculation n., osculatory adj.

So, the next time you do some osculating, remember a kiss is not just kiss, its some kind of psychological compulsion. A sigh, however, is just a sigh.

A Kiss is Never Just a Kiss, Morning Edition, National Public Radio, Jan 26, 1993.

Philematology the art or study of kissing.

Philematologist one who studies kisses.

Philemaphobia or Philematophobia a fear of kissing.

Kiss (v.)Etymology of the word

O.E. cyssan to kiss, from P.Gmc. * kussijanan (cf. O.S. kussian , O.N. kyssa, O.Fris. kessa, Ger. kssen ), from *kuss-, probably ultimately imitative of the sound. The O.E. noun was coss, which became M.E. cuss, but this yielded to kiss, from the verb. There appears to be no common I.E. root word for kiss, though suggestions of a common ku- sound may be found in the Gmc. root and Gk. kynein to kiss, Hittite kuwash-anzi they kiss, Skt. cumbati he kisses.

Some languages make a distinction between the kiss of affection and that of erotic love (cf. L. saviari erotic kiss, vs. osculum, lit. little mouth). Fr. embrasser kiss, but lit. embrace, came about in the seventeenth century when the older word baiser (from L. basiare ) acquired an obscene connotation. Kiss of death (1948) is in ref. to Judass kiss in Gethsemane (Matt. xxvi. 4850).

In the Dictionary of Osculation, which has never yet been completed, are found some definitions:

Bussa kiss.

Rebusto kiss again.

Pluribusto kiss all around.

Syllabusto kiss the hand instead of the lips.

Blunderbusto kiss the wrong person, sometimes unexpectedly pleasant.

Omnibusto kiss promiscuously.

Erebusto kiss in the dark.

Incubusto kiss someone you dont like.

Harquebusto kiss with a loud smack.

MORSE CODE

BRAILLE

SIGN LANGUAGE

TEXT KISSES

Numerical value: 5477; also text kiss = lips.

E-MOTICONS FOR KISS

ORIGINS OF THE USE OF x AS A KISS

The use of the letter X as a symbol of affection can be traced back to when the illiterate would sign contracts with an X in place of a signature. Marked in the presence of witnesses, it was followed by a kiss upon the X to further convey sincerity. Others believe the X , the twenty-second letter of the Greek alphabet or Chi symbol, represents Christ or the first letter of his name and is a variation of the Christian cross. The X was also the ancient Paleo Hebrew letter Tav, and was a symbol of the Seal of Hashem (God) and it represented truth, completeness and perfection. In his work on the history of sex, Rabbi Brasch traces the X symbol for a kiss to the sign for two mouths kissing: >-<. Over time, X has become the universal symbol for the kiss and is also an onomatopoeic.