How kissable are you?
I was browsing through life one day and I stumbled upon a very simple word with so many significations (emotionally speaking) that I decided to give it some more thought. I actually wanted to find out is it just this one “kiss” or it’s more than that. Apparently it is. My curiosity was on the Chinese side of the language. I wanted to find out if the Chinese language is making such a big fuss out of this word “kiss” like my native language Romanian or other languages like French (who “invented” the french kiss…I have some doubts about its origin because you may never know what homo sapien from Africa or Iceland “invented” it.).
So there it is the actual kiss – 吻 wen3 made from a mouth radical 口 kou3 and 勿 wu4, which is weird because it literary means mouth-no, this 勿 being a negation adverb meaning no. (but maybe there is more to this wu than my contemporary dictionary says; I’ll have to look into it). I won’t stop here because nowadays we have french kisses everywhere on this planet, flying kisses, Eskimo ones etc.
I will start with the most popular one the French Kiss – 法式接吻 fa3shi4jie1wen3 (ad litteram French style kiss…I wonder what the Korean style is now for this one:)) which is the most common translation for it. Other variation is 舌吻 she2wen3 (ad litteram the tongue kiss). The NCIKU online dictionary has a more realistic way of presenting it 🙂 very nice video.
Next in line is 飞吻 fei1wen3 – to send a kiss ( I don’t like the to blow a kiss or the throw someone a kiss translation…I’m throwing your kisses on the floor, you jerk:))))…But it is the only way you can say it in English, so that’s it). The ad litteram translation is quite nice, but very unnatural to use it in a sentence to fly a kiss, maybe used as a noun a flying kiss it’s more suitable. And here it is another NCIKU video.
The 亲吻 qin1wen3 – kiss it can be also a friendly kiss and an intimate kiss. This two types of kisses can be differentiated very easy because 亲吻 is mostly used between friend while 接吻 jie1wen3 is definitely a lover’s kiss.
Basically those are the most common Chinese kisses. But like any other language, Chinese language as well is borrowing words in order to express new meanings that are not to be found in the Chinese culture.
What do you know about the Eskimo’s kiss? Why should they be any different? Those French and Eskimo people always looking for attention. Well actually the Eskimo kiss isn’t really a kiss with the mouth, but more with the nose….if you get me…it’s two people rubbing their noses back and forward against each other. So how do you say it in Chinese? Well you have two options: to say the Eskimo kiss 爱斯基摩人的亲吻 ai4si1ji1mo2ren2 de qin1wen3 or to say what it really is rub your nose (using bump or hit in Chinese) 碰鼻子 peng4 bi2zi.
Another kissable part of our face is the cheek and a very popular one especially when a boy gets the cheek to kiss instead of the 嘴 zui . Painful!!! She gave him her cheek to kiss/ 她让他吻她的面颊。(source). So the cheek kiss 脸颊的吻 lian3jia2 de wen3 is a very common kiss. In some cultures it’s on both cheeks (like Romanian) or just on one. It can be a friendly kiss, a flirty one or a say good-bye kiss.
Now let’s move on to a more entertaining part of this word…here they are the most memorable and fashionable types of kisses: the spider-man way kiss and the vampire kiss. Don’t tell me you never saw them, at least in movies…they are now days very popular between teenagers…. although maybe impossible to make them, the vampire part of the kiss at least. The Spider Man kiss 蜘蛛侠的吻 zhi1zhu1xia2 de wen3 is based on the kiss from 2002 movie Spider Man. Well you guessed right. It’s about the face upside down kiss. Now let’s see if the Chinese language has adopted it. A quick Google search says NO. Let’s see the Vampire kiss because apparently it’s all about them since the Twilight Saga. The Google oracle says it all: it’s all about the vampire (maybe I should do a post on vampire vocabulary because we are living in a vampire world: the saga, the journals, the true blood and I’m sure it’s not all and there are more to come). 吸血鬼之吻 xi1xue4gui3 zhi wen3 – vampire kiss or the kiss of death (in general they dye after being bitten) 死亡之吻 si3wang2 zhi wen3.
I am sure that I didn’t cover all kissable areas in Chinese, but please feel free to add more. I am Gemini so my curiosity doesn’t stop here.
It is late though so how about a good night kiss? 来个“晚安吻”怎么样？
Another kissable part of our face is the cheek and a very popular one especially when a boy gets the cheek to kiss instead of the 嘴 zui . Painful!!! She gave him her cheek to kiss/ 她让他吻她的面颊。(source). So the cheek kiss 脸颊的吻 lian3jia2 de wen3 is a very common kiss. In some cultures it’s on both cheeks (like Romanian) or just on one. It can be a friendly kiss, a flirty one or a say good-bye kiss.
Now let’s move on to a more entertaining part of this word…here they are the most memorable and fashionable types of kisses: the spider-man way kiss and the vampire kiss. Don’t tell me you never saw them, at least in movies…they are now days very popular between teenagers…. although maybe impossible to make them, the vampire part of the kiss at least. The Spider Man kiss 蜘蛛侠的吻 zhi1zhu1xia2 de wen3 is based on the kiss from 2002 movie Spider Man. Well you guessed right. It’s about the face upside down kiss. Now let’s see if the Chinese language has adopted it. A quick Google search says NO. Let’s see the Vampire kiss because apparently it’s all about them since the Twilight Saga. The Google oracle says it all: it’s all about the vampire (maybe I should do a post on vampire vocabulary because we are living in a vampire world: the saga, the journals, the true blood and I’m sure it’s not all and there are more to come). 吸血鬼之吻 xi1xue4gui3 zhi wen3 – vampire kiss or the kiss of death (in general they dye after being bitten) 死亡之吻 si3wang2 zhi wen3.
I am sure that I didn’t cover all kissable areas in Chinese, but please feel free to add more. I am Gemini so my curiosity doesn’t stop here.
It is late though so how about a good night kiss? 来个“晚安吻”怎么样？