Literary notes about osculation (AI summary)
Literary authors often employ the term "osculation" in varied and imaginative ways. Its use can be literal, referring to a kiss or the act of intimate contact—as when a kiss is elevated to the level of a formal ritual or moment of passionate impact ([1], [2])—or metaphorical, suggesting a precise moment of contact akin to the tangency found between two curves ([3], [4]). The word may carry a humorous or even satirical nuance, whether depicting the physical and sometimes farcical nature of a kiss ([5], [6]) or alluding to the perceived propriety of such contact in social conduct ([7]). In each instance, osculation imbues the text with both technical resonance and evocative, sensory detail.
- Then the crowns were removed and kissed by each of the marrying pair, the bridegroom first performing the osculation.
— from Overland through Asia; Pictures of Siberian, Chinese, and Tartar Life by Thomas Wallace Knox - It transmutes the prose of living into the poetry of idealization, as love transmutes the physical fact of osculation into the beatitude of a kiss.
— from The Romance of the Commonplace by Gelett Burgess - contact , n. touching , tangency, contingency, impact , juxtaposition, osculation, contiguity, apposition, syzygy.
— from Putnam's Word Book A Practical Aid in Expressing Ideas Through the Use of an Exact and Varied Vocabulary by Louis A. (Louis Andrew) Flemming - They had many points at which the curves of their natures touched, such as mathematicians, with unique spasm of romance, call points of osculation.
— from Stella Maris by William John Locke - The haughty Rolf snorted at such an idea and sent one of his servants to perform the osculation.
— from The Charm of Scandinavia by Sydney Clark - "If by osculation you mean kissing, Miss Cobb," I said, going over to her, "I guess you don't remember the Austrian count who was a head waiter here.
— from Where There's a Will by Mary Roberts Rinehart - There is no doubt, however, that Germans fully appreciate osculation between members of the opposite sex.
— from The Art of Kissing: Curiously, Historically, Humorously, Poetically Considered by Will Rossiter
