Editing Kiss (section)

==Types==
Kristoffer Nyrop identified a number of types of kisses, including kisses of love, affection, peace, respect, and friendship. He notes, however, that the categories are somewhat contrived and overlapping, and some cultures have more kinds, including the French with twenty and the Germans with thirty.<ref name="Nyrop">Nyrop, Kristoffer. ''The Kiss and its History'', Sands & Co., London (1901) [[iarchive:bub gb UQgNAAAAYAAJ|Read full text]]</ref>

===Expression of affection===
Kissing another person's lips has become a common expression of affection or warm greeting in many cultures worldwide. Yet in certain cultures, kissing was introduced only through European settlement, before which it was not a routine occurrence. Such cultures include certain indigenous peoples of Australia, the Tahitians, and many tribes in Africa.<ref name=Dyer>Dyer, Tristeleton T.F. "The History of Kissing", ''The American Magazine'', vol. 14 1882, pp. 611–614</ref>

A kiss can also be used to express feelings without an erotic element but can be nonetheless "far deeper and more lasting", writes Nyrop. He adds that such kisses can be expression of love "in the widest and most comprehensive meaning of the word, bringing a message of loyal affection, gratitude, compassion, sympathy, intense joy, and profound sorrow."<ref name=Nyrop />{{Rp|79}}

Nyrop writes that the most common example is the "intense feeling which knits parents to their offspring", but he adds that kisses of affection are not only common between parents and children, but also between other members of the same family, which can include those outside the immediate family circle, "everywhere where deep affection unites people."<ref name=Nyrop />{{Rp|82}} The tradition is written of in the Bible, as when Esau met Jacob after a long separation, he ran towards him, fell on his neck, and kissed him ({{bibleverse|Genesis|33:4|HE}}), [[Moses]] greeted his father-in-law and kissed him ({{bibleverse|Exodus|18:7|HE}}), and [[Orpah]] kissed her mother-in-law before leaving her ({{bibleverse|Ruth|1:14|HE}}). The family kiss was traditional with the Romans and kisses of affection are often mentioned by the early [[ancient Greece|Greeks]], as when [[Odysseus]], on reaching his home, meets his faithful shepherds.<ref name=Nyrop />{{Rp|82–83}}

Affection can be a cause of kissing "in all ages in grave and solemn moments," notes Nyrop, "not only among those who love each other, but also as an expression of profound gratitude. When the [[Apostle Paul]] took leave of the elders of the congregation at [[Ephesus]], "they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him" (Acts 20:37)." Kisses can also be exchanged between total strangers, as when there is a profound sympathy with or the warmest interest in another person.<ref name=Nyrop />{{Rp|85}}

[[Folk poetry]] has been the source of affectionate kisses where they sometimes played an important part, as when they had the power to cast off spells or to break bonds of witchcraft and sorcery, often restoring a man to his original shape. Nyrop notes the poetical stories of the "redeeming power of the kiss are to be found in the literature of many countries, especially, for example, in the Old French Arthurian romances (Lancelot, Guiglain) in which the princess is changed by evil arts into a dreadful dragon, and can only resume her human shape in the case of a knight being brave enough to kiss her." In the reverse situation, in the tale of "[[Beauty and the Beast]]", a transformed prince then told the girl that he had been bewitched by a wicked fairy, and could not be recreated into a man unless a maid fell in love with him and kissed him, despite his ugliness.<ref name=Nyrop />{{Rp|95–96}}

A kiss of affection can also take place after death. In {{bibleverse|Genesis|50:1|HE}}, it is written that when Jacob was dead, "Joseph fell upon his father's face and wept upon him and kissed him." And it is told of [[Abu Bakr]], [[Muhammad]]'s first disciple, father-in-law, and successor, that, when the prophet was dead, he went into the latter's tent, uncovered his face, and [[Forehead kiss|kissed his forehead]]. Nyrop writes that "the kiss is the last tender proof of love bestowed on one we have loved, and was believed, in ancient times, to follow mankind to the nether world."<ref name=Nyrop />{{Rp|97}}

Kissing on the lips can be a physical expression of affection or love between two people in which the sensations of touch, taste, and smell are involved.<ref name=Brayer /> According to the psychologist Menachem Brayer, although many "mammals, birds, and insects exchange caresses" which appear to be kisses of affection, they are not kisses in the human sense.

Surveys indicate that kissing is the second most common form of [[physical intimacy]] among United States adolescents (after [[holding hands]]), and that about 85% of 15 to 16-year-old adolescents in the US have experienced it.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/S1054-139X(99)00061-0 |pmid=10706169 |title=Smart teens don't have sex (or kiss much either) |journal=Journal of Adolescent Health |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=213–25 |year=2000 |last1=Halpern |first1=Carolyn Tucker |last2=Joyner |first2=Kara |last3=Udry |first3=J.Richard |last4=Suchindran |first4=Chirayath }}</ref>

===Kiss on the lips===
[[File:US Navy 030506-N-5961C-002 Chief Petty Officer Troy Tomey's son welcomes his dad back from Operation Iraqi Freedom with a kiss.jpg|thumb|right|US Naval Officer's son welcomes his dad back from operation with a kiss]]
The kiss on the lips can be performed between two [[friend]]s or family. This move aims to express affection for a friend. Unlike kissing for [[love]], a friendly kiss has no sexual connotation. The kiss on the lips is a practice that can be found in the time of [[patriarchs (Bible)]].<ref>William Smith, Smith's Bible Dictionary, [http://biblehub.com/topical/k/kiss.htm Kiss] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170123114354/http://biblehub.com/topical/k/kiss.htm |date=2017-01-23 }}, UK, 1988</ref> In [[Ancient Greece]], the kiss on the mouth was used to express a concept of equality between people of the same rank.<ref name=":0">Marine Gasc, racontemoilhistoire.com, [http://www.racontemoilhistoire.com/2016/01/20/bisou-bouche-histoire/ Le bisou] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170708041015/http://www.racontemoilhistoire.com/2016/01/20/bisou-bouche-histoire/ |date=2017-07-08 }}, France, January 20, 2016</ref> In the [[Middle Ages]], the [[kiss of peace]] was recommended by the Catholic Church.<ref>Yannick Carré, ''Le baiser sur la bouche au Moyen Âge : rites, symboles, mentalités, à travers les textes et les images, XIe-XVe siècles'', Le Léopard d'Or, 1992, page 357</ref> The kiss on the lips was also common among knights.<ref name=":0" /> The gesture has again become popular with young people, particularly in England.<ref>Eric Anderson, Adi Adams, Ian Rivers, Archives of Sexual Behavior [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/47521172_I_Kiss_Them_Because_I_Love_Them_The_Emergence_of_Heterosexual_Men_Kissing_in_British_Institutes_of_Education “I Kiss Them Because I Love Them”: The Emergence of Heterosexual Men Kissing in British Institutes of Education] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160911060129/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/47521172_I_Kiss_Them_Because_I_Love_Them_The_Emergence_of_Heterosexual_Men_Kissing_in_British_Institutes_of_Education |date=2016-09-11 }}, UK, April 2012, Volume 41. 2, pages 421–430</ref><ref>Journal 7sur7.be, [http://www.7sur7.be/7s7/fr/1520/Sexe-Relations/article/detail/1176526/2010/10/29/Nouvelle-tendance-des-bisous-sur-la-bouche-entre-amis.dhtml Nouvelle tendance: des bisous sur la bouche entre amis!] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160915004237/http://www.7sur7.be/7s7/fr/1520/Sexe-Relations/article/detail/1176526/2010/10/29/Nouvelle-tendance-des-bisous-sur-la-bouche-entre-amis.dhtml |date=2016-09-15 }}, Belgium, October 29, 2010 [https://web.archive.org/web/20211003063455/https://www.7sur7.be/sexe-et-relations/nouvelle-tendance-des-bisous-sur-la-bouche-entre-amis~a9968e27/ archived version]</ref>

===Romantic kiss===
[[File:Amor, te quiero.jpg|thumb|A couple kissing]]
[[File:Men kissing2.jpg|thumb|A gay couple kissing]]
[[File:Two girls kiss in Strathcona Park, during the annual 2018 Edmonton Pride Festival.jpg|thumb|A lesbian couple kissing]]
In many cultures, it is considered a harmless custom for [[teenagers]] to kiss on a [[dating|date]] or to engage in [[party games|kissing games]] with friends. These games serve as icebreakers at parties and may be some participants' first exposure to sexuality. There are many such games, including [[Truth or dare?|truth or dare]], [[seven minutes in heaven]] (or the variation "two minutes in the closet"), [[spin the bottle]], [[Post Office (game)|post office]], and wink.
The psychologist William Cane notes that kissing in [[Western world|Western]] society is often a romantic act and describes a few of its attributes:
{{blockquote|It's not hard to tell when two people are in love. Maybe they're trying to hide it from the world, still they cannot conceal their inner excitement. Men will give themselves away by a certain excited trembling in the muscles of the lower jaw upon seeing their beloved. Women will often turn pale immediately of seeing their lover and then get slightly red in the face as their sweetheart draws near. This is the effect of physical closeness upon two people who are in love.<ref name=Cane>Cane, William. ''The Art of Kissing'', Macmillan (1991)</ref>{{Rp|9}}}}Romantic kissing in Western cultures is a fairly recent development and is rarely mentioned even in ancient Greek literature. In the Middle Ages it became a social gesture and was considered a sign of refinement of the upper classes.<ref name=Brayer>Brayer, Menachem M. ''The Jewish Woman in Rabbinic Literature'', KTAV Publishing House (1986)</ref>{{Rp|150–151}} Other cultures have different definitions and uses of kissing, notes Brayer. In [[China]], for example, a similar expression of affection consists of rubbing one's nose against the cheek of another person. In other [[Eastern Culture|Eastern cultures]] kissing is not common. In South East Asian countries the "sniff kiss" is the most common form of affection and Western [[Human mouth|mouth]] to mouth kissing is often reserved for sexual foreplay.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hopkins |first1=E. Washbun |title=The Sniff-Kiss in Ancient India |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |year=1907 |volume=28 |pages=120–134 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/592764 |publisher=American Oriental Society |doi=10.2307/592764 |jstor=592764 |access-date=25 January 2021}}</ref>

The kiss can be an important expression of love and [[eroticism|erotic]] emotions. In his book ''The Kiss and its History'', Kristoffer Nyrop describes the kiss of love as an "exultant message of the longing of love, love eternally young, the burning prayer of hot desire, which is born on the lovers' lips, and 'rises,' as Charles Fuster has said, 'up to the blue sky from the green plains,' like a tender, trembling thank-offering." Nyrop adds that the love kiss, "rich in promise, bestows an intoxicating feeling of infinite happiness, courage, and youth, and therefore surpasses all other earthly joys in sublimity."<ref name=Nyrop />{{Rp|30}} He also compares it to achievements in life: "Thus even the highest work of art, yet, the loftiest reputation, is nothing in comparison with the passionate kiss of a woman one loves."<ref name=Nyrop />{{Rp|31}}

The power of a kiss is not minimized when he writes that "we all yearn for kisses and we all seek them; it is idle to struggle against this passion. No one can evade the omnipotence of the kiss ..." Kissing, he implies, can lead one to maturity: "It is through kisses that a knowledge of life and happiness first comes to us. Runeberg says that the angels rejoice over the first kiss exchanged by lovers," and can keep one feeling young: "It carries life with it; it even bestows the gift of eternal youth." The importance of the lover's kiss can also be significant, he notes: "In the case of lovers a kiss is everything; that is the reason why a man stakes his all for a kiss," and "man craves for it as his noblest reward."<ref name=Nyrop />{{Rp|37}}

As a result, kissing as an expression of love is contained in much of literature, old and new. Nyrop gives a vivid example in the classic love story of [[Daphnis and Chloe]]. As a reward "Chloe has bestowed a kiss on Daphnis—an innocent young-maid's kiss, but it has on him the effect of an electrical shock":<ref name=Nyrop />{{Rp|47}}
{{blockquote|Ye gods, what are my feelings. Her lips are softer than the rose's leaf, her mouth is sweet as honey, and her kiss inflicts on me more pain than a bee's sting. I have often kissed my kids, I have often kissed my lambs, but never have I known aught like this. My pulse is beating fast, my heart throbs, it is as if I were about to suffocate, yet, nevertheless, I want to have another kiss. Strange, never-suspected pain! Has Chloe, I wonder, drunk some poisonous draught ere she kissed me? How comes it that she herself has not died of it?}}
Romantic kissing "requires more than simple proximity," notes Cane. It also needs "some degree of intimacy or privacy, ... which is why you'll see lovers stepping to the side of a busy street or sidewalk."<ref name=Cane /> Psychologist [[Wilhelm Reich]] "lashed out at society" for not giving young lovers enough privacy and making it difficult to be alone.<ref name=Cane /> However, Cane describes how many lovers manage to attain romantic privacy despite being in a public setting, as they "lock their minds together" and thereby create an invisible sense of "psychological privacy." He adds, "In this way they can kiss in public even in a crowded plaza and keep it romantic."<ref name=Cane />{{Rp|10}} Nonetheless, when Cane asked people to describe the most romantic places they ever kissed, "their answers almost always referred to this ends-of-the-earth isolation, ... they mentioned an apple orchard, a beach, out in a field looking at the stars, or at a pond in a secluded area ..."<ref name=Cane />{{Rp|10}}

===French kiss===
[[File:L’éternel printemps - par Auguste Rodin.jpg|thumb|right|Eternal Spring - Bronze with black patina - Circa 1884 - by [[Auguste Rodin]] - [[Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie de Besançon|Besançon Museum of Fine Arts]]]]

A ''[[French kiss]]'', also known as ''cataglottism'' or a ''tongue kiss'', is an amorous kiss in which the participants' [[tongue]]s extend to touch each other's lips or tongue. A ''kiss with the tongue'' stimulates the partner's lips, tongue and mouth, which are sensitive to the touch and induce sexual arousal. The sensation when two tongues touch—also known as ''tongue touching''—has been proven to stimulate [[endorphin]] release and reduce acute [[Stress (psychological)|stress]] levels.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}} Extended French kissing may be part of [[making out]]. The term originated at the beginning of the 20th century, in America and Great Britain, as the French had acquired a reputation for more adventurous and passionate sex practices.

French kissing may be a mode for disease transmission, particularly if there are open wounds.