Kiss - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

KISS, the act of pressing or touching with the lips, cheek, hand or lips of another, as a sign or expression of love, affection, reverence or greeting. Skeat (Etym. Dict., 1898) connects the Teut. base kussa with Lat. gustus, taste, and with Goth. kustus, test, from kinsan, to choose, and takes "kiss" as ultimately a doublet of "choice." For the liturgical osculum pacis or "kiss of peace," see PAX. See further C. Nyrop, The Kiss and its History, trans. by W. F. Harvey (1902); J. J. Claudius, Dissertatio de salutationibus veterum (Utrecht, 1702); and "Baisers d'etiquette" (1689) in Archives curieuses de l'histoire de France (1834-1890, series ii. tom. 12).