Kiss

Painting: Marc Chagall: The Birthday

Reverend Skeat, etymologist, sometimes undermines the feeling that one has for a word; 'a salute with the lips' is sweet, but 'A kiss is a gust or taste, or something choice' is not so poetic.
It is not his intention to bring us poetry here, only the historic journey.
Kiss being a word that happens close, that puts two figures into one personal sphere, to think of it dispassionately seems inappropriate.
The journey of language is bound up with the human journey: the historic spread of this tribe and that: the individual stumble and stride.
The need to communicate, for practical terms of trade, for spiritual terms of connection, is a sort of fundamentalism that allows an open mind.
Etymology, a word that travels from the Greek expressions; true, account, to speak; is a study in connection; the connective spheres between languages; words on lips exchanged, not unlike the press of a kiss.

The earth as viewed from an orbiting satellite
Rev. Skeat's tracing of the word 'Kiss'

Comments

  1. Sue McPeak12 April 2014 at 12:55

    Salute with the lips...I get...not so much gust or taste, however, the journey toward the kiss as you described it, kinda explains the spinning sphere and shooting stars effect of KISSING. Congrats on making it through Week #2. Thanks for your visits and comments on my AtoZ 'fiction from forgotten fotos'.
    Sue at CollectInTexas Gal

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown12 April 2014 at 13:46

    Hi there - I like this post. Good luck on the rest of the A - Z Challenge. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Suze12 April 2014 at 20:36

    Gust makes me think of 'gusto,' the Spanish word for savoring. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mary Mary13 April 2014 at 23:04

    This was very interesting. I've never thought a lot about a kiss, but this is definitely an interesting way of breaking it down. Good choice for your "K"!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Lisa Southard14 April 2014 at 09:38

    Thank you all, lovely ladies! Week two of the A-Z has flown by, probably because I have picked a very easy approach. And I'm having fun with it- a very good balance to the more involved world of The Novel (penultimate chapter in production...)

    ReplyDelete

Post a comment

Thank you for reading my words- my chance to read yours here:

Popular posts from this blog

Three Letters To Grace

Image
Words On Love, Loss, And Grieving



21/5/2020 Dear Grace,
I have said how your legacy is the small kind things; I have been noticing them more and more. It’s almost ridiculous, in a wonderful way, to be so taken by the pattern on a plate or how clever elastic is. I can’t stop making beautiful meals. Yesterday I woke up with the bravado to debone a turkey leg. It took awhile; regret was made fleeting by success. I feel like you know. That your light and care are here in everything and that’s why I am continually tuning in. The energy to transform everything is part of this, to celebrate our ordinary splendour. This has manifested into some minor furniture renovations and uncovered a leaking pipe under the bath. (I think we can fix it, I’ve put a cloth down for now to soak it up, left it open to dry out the floor and the rotted skirting board. The bath panel is outside meanwhile… should I paint it? Probably not…)
This is the best of grief; the deep and peaceful loss, the fine example, your …
Read more

Corona Creep Up

Image
Words From The Start Of Lockdown Life


Saturday March 14th 2020
On the drive to work I got bored of changing the windscreen wiper settings, then a little off-white spider raced around on the steering wheel. I blew it onto the dashboard but it jumped back. Cheeky spider. At work we are bored of coronavirus restrictions and bored at the prospect of it continuing. We don’t know anyone who has it. Supermarket shelves are missing toilet roll, dried pasta, as previously, now also tins of beans and tomatoes. There are travel bans and cancelled events. Last night I had to teach a non contact TKD session - no pads, no sparring, no hand shaking. I began my class with ‘first of all, please don’t breathe because that’s dangerous now.’ All of us are ‘meh’ about these restrictions. We understand that infection control is serious for the immune-compromised, we adhere to protocol for that reason. But the paranoia and boredom: meh. Monday March 16 2020 Yesterday Mr and I did some babysitting for Grandch…
Read more

A Rainbow Strikes

Image
June is rolling by, awash, so everyone has forgotten that it's summer now.  This morning I peered into the vegetable plots, into the swaying minarets of onion buds, the splay of cabbage seed pods, not sure if the raspberries were the summer or the autumn kind.  Lovage flowers, tiny spray on tall stems; lavender in bud: summer. Wild strawberries and rose petals in the dehydrator and the windows open to better hear the thunder: summer. After an evening swim one must wrap up: always. 
I am busy writing a story that seems to be running in rings about me, I am busy wild swimming to clear my head; working to pay the bills, reading up on rural planning law to wrestle reality from a dream. Picking the roses, the strawberries, the onion flowers. Tending the cabbage bed.  Standing still when I remember: see the swallows swoop by. Or floating, bobbing up toes, while each rain drop ripples out. Or that stop on the beach, while I am looking ridiculous with a towel on my head; two lumpy layered jumpers…
Read more