crosspost from LinguistList on kissing in texts

[Laurence Horn]

At 2:45 PM -0400 8/13/09, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>  >> ...research apprentice<<
>
>Wow, like Harry Potter!  I thought that was just a story!  Here they're
>called "assistants" or maybe "interns"
>
>>>Is there a general consensus on where kissing originated from<<
>
>Garden of Eden, possibly, but the venue soon changed.
>
>Am impressed that you can take the XXX representation of kisses as far back
>as 1763, which I now realize is further back than my personal experience
>(1950s).  What is that 1763 source?  (I do know that my grandmother, a lady
>from the Mauve Decade in the Big Apple, seemed to remember the practice from
>her childhood.)
>
>Also from childhood, I assumed that each "X" was supposed to represent a
>puckered pair of lips, but that may be too fanciful.  (Or maybe XXX
>represents some kind of rating. Were they originally confined to love
>letters?)
>

Well, remember too the O's for hugs, usu. in a one-to-one
correspondence with the X's, as in XOXOXO or XXXOOO.  Maybe all the
kissing and hugging originated as a meager substitute after the ban
on Tic-Tac-Toe.

LH

>On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 1:49 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:
>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>  -----------------------
>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>>  Subject:      crosspost from LinguistList on kissing in texts
>>
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  Someone on our list should be able to advise Mr. Griffiths on the
>>  history of kissing and telling.  Please send any suggestions to the
>>  original poster as well as to us.
>>
>>  LH
>>
>>  >
>>  >LINGUIST List: Vol-20-2759. Thu Aug 13 2009. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.
>>  >
>>  >Subject: 20.2759, Qs: Kissing in Texts and Letters
>>  >
>>  >
>>  >
>>  >-------------------------Message 1 ----------------------------------
>>  >Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 12:01:05
>>  >From: Hugo Griffiths [hugogriffiths at gmail.com]
>>  >Subject: Kissing in Texts and Letters
>>  >
>>  >
>>  >
>>  >Dear Linguists,
>>  >
>>  >I am an English Literature and Language undergraduate at Winchester
>>  >University in the south of England, and have recently taken on the role of
>>  >a research apprentice. The project I have been working on has concerned
>>  >itself with SMS text messaging; we have been looking into such things as
>>  >tone, register phonetic spelling and many of the other facets found in
>>  >people's texts.
>>  >
>>  >One of the things we have been looking into more closely is the propensity
>>  >texters have to 'kiss'; that is to put an 'x' in single or multiple forms
>>  >in their messages. Obviously this is not something that is unique to
>>  >text-messages, kisses being present in letters, emails, tree trunks and
>>  the
>>  >like, but I was wondering if any of you kind linguists out there knew of
>>  >any research or theories that might take kisses into account.
>>  >
>>  >Is there a general consensus on where kissing originated from or when an
>>  >'x' first began to represent a kiss? Are there any languages other than
>>  >English that use them? There seems to be precious little discoverable
>>  >research out there on the subject. I have so far managed to ascertain that
>>  >they were used as far back as 1763, but other than this seem to have drawn
>>  >a blank. Can anyone shed any light on this for me?
>>  >
>>  >Your help is very much appreciated,
>>  >
>>  >Yours faithfully,
>>  >Hugo Griffiths
>>  >
>>
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>
>
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