Happy Valentines Day! I hope everyone is taking a second today to tell their friends and family how much they care about one another. With all the recent talk surrounding Valentines Day in the news and magazines, I decided to explore a fact about kissing.
Everyone can remember his or her first kiss, good or bad. This was an exciting experience for some and a game of tongue-war for others. When a kiss is done properly it is a very personal and sensual experience.
With many forms of kissing around the world, the French Kiss is famously known as the “kiss involving the tongue”. Some people have referred to the French Kiss as the “Soul Kiss because the life and soul are thought to pass through the mouth's breath in the exchange across tongues”. Did you know that in France they don’t actually refer to this type of kissing as the French Kiss?
With a little digging I found out that French kissing has been referred to as baiser anglais (translation: “english kiss”) in some northern parts of France. More commonly in France it is referred to as baiser amoureux ("love kiss") or baiser avec la langue ("kiss with the tongue"). In French slang, this type of kissing is called a patin (“ice skating shoe”), or rouler un patin ("roll a skate") or rouler une pelle ("roll a shovel"). How romantic is that once you have translated it into English?
I pondered, why do they still call it a French Kiss if that is not how the French refer to it? Well, why not? The French have historically been know as romantic and one of the first people to accept public displays of love and affection. Also, Paris, France is recognized as a destination of love and romance to visitors from around the world. To me it only makes sense that we still refer to it as a French Kiss.
What do you think?
Kait,
ReplyDeleteThis post is so cute! It's so interesting that the translation is the complete opposite. I definitely agree that a possible reason why the "French" name has remained has to do with the romance associated with France, and Paris in particular.