philematology

English

WOTD – 14 February 2018

Etymology

A United States Navy specialist who had returned from a deployment kissing his wife while their son engages in philematology.

From Danish filematologi,^[1] from Ancient Greek φῐ́λημᾰ (phílēma, “a kiss”) + ologi (equivalent to English -ology), but compare the New Latin philēmatologiā, which appears written in Greek as φιληματολογία in the title of a 1659 book.^[2]

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) enPR: fĭlē'mətŏʹləji, IPA^(key): /fɪˌlɪməˈtɒləd͡ʒi/
- Audio (Southern England): (file)
(General American) IPA^(key): /fɪˌləməˈtɑləd͡ʒi/
Hyphenation: phi‧le‧ma‧to‧lo‧gy

Noun

philematology (uncountable)

The scientific study of kissing. [from 1901]
- 1901, Christopher Nyrop, “Love Kisses”, in William Frederick Harvey, transl., The Kiss and Its History, London: Sands & Co., 12 Burleigh Street, Strand, →OCLC, page 49:
  The Italians use the expression baciare co' denti (kiss with the teeth) to signify "to love." We can only treat these kisses as a sort of transitional link, of shorter or longer duration, according to circumstances. They are, as it were, "a sea fraught with perils," which in Mlle. [Madeleine] de Scudéry's celebrated letter (la carte de tendre), carries one to strange countries (les terres inconnues); but, as these countries lie outside the regions of pure philematology, I shall not pursue my investigations further.
- 2010, Michael J. Rosen, Ben Kassoy, M. Sweeney Lawless, “Waking Up on the Right Side of the Bed”, in Any Body’s Guess!: Quirky Quizzes about What Makes You Tick, Kansas City, Mo.: Andrews McMeel Publishing, →ISBN, page 170:
  Although philematology (the art and science of lip-locking) remains largely unstudied, researchers have proven that kissing not only decreases levels of cortisol, a chemical that creates stress, but also increases oxytocin, a chemical that heightens feelings of affection and potentially fights depression and disease.
- 2011, Nicole Conn, Elena Undone, Tallahassee, Fla.: Bella Books, →ISBN:
  "Now the flip side of this whole kissing as exercise thing is that, like, hundreds of bacteria are exchanged in a kiss—so you know …" she extended her arms in a balancing gesture, "it's all risk-benefit and yeah, all in the name of philematology—that's the actual scientific term used for the study of kissing. Oh and get this, a woman has usually kissed about seventy-nine men before she finally settles and gets married."
- 2013, Marcel Danesi, The History of the Kiss!: The Birth of Popular Culture (Semiotics and Popular Culture), New York, N.Y., Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN:
  There's a lot riding on a kiss, as work in philematology suggests, since the act appears to set off a complex set of chemical reactions that enhance romantic feelings and make physical acts like sexual intercourse much more meaningful.

Derived terms

philematologist

Related terms

philemaphobia

Translations

scientific study of kissing

Finnish: filematologia
French: philamatologie f
German: Philematologie f
Korean: 키스학 (kiseuhak) (more commonly the art or technique of kissing)
Latin:
New Latin: philēmatologiā f

References

^ First used in a translation of a Danish work:
Kristoffer Nyrop (1897) Kysset og dets historie (in Danish), København: det Nordiske forlag, →OCLC, pages 10 (Hvad er et kys?) and 45 (Elskovskys):
Af osculum afledes ordene oskulologi, læren om kys, og oskulologisk, hvad der vedrører kys. Man bør dog måske foretrække de helt græske dannelser filematologi og filematologisk. […] Dorat, der må anses for en fremragende autoritet i filematologi, siger udtrykkeligt: Un second baiser peut guérir / Le mal qu’un premier t’a pu faire.
Christopher Nyrop, William Frederick Harvey, transl. (1901) The Kiss and Its History, London: Sands & Co., […], →OCLC, pages 8 (What is a Kiss?) and 44 (Love Kisses):
From osculum we get the words osculogy, the science of kissing, and osculogical, that which pertains to kissing; but the Greek derivations philematology and philematological are perhaps preferable. […] Dorat, who may be regarded as a high authority on philematology, expressly says: A second kiss can physic / The evil the first has wrought
^ [Jacobus Herrenschmidius] (1659) Speculum φιληματολογίας [philēmatologías]. cùm Sacræ tùm profanæ: Per quæstiones aliquot ex variis multorum monumentis non minus ad voluptatem quam utilitatem S.S. Theologiæ & Philologiæ Studiosorum concinnatum operâ & studio., [Wittenberg, Germany]: Sumptibus Friderici Bergeri Bibl. [At the expense of the library of Friedrich Berger (?)], →OCLC, title page.