A ‘galoche’ for Valentine’s Day

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Hello lovers of the world, and happy Valentine’s Day! Yes, YOUR day has finally arrived, along with its usual cheesy-hearty atmosphere.
What better way to celebrate this day? How about a passionate ‘galoche‘ with your loved one! Don’t know what that is? Uhm, here are some hints: it might sound French and the French may be renowned for doing it. Still, it wasn’t a French word until last year. Got it?

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Yes! You are right, we are talking about the epic ‘French kiss’. The expression “French kiss” was mint after World War I. When soldiers returned to the US with newly acquired knowledge of kissing with tongues, they named this sexy technique the French kiss. Yet, ironically, there was no word, nor verb, to define this particular type of kissing in French.

Luckily, every year Le Petit Robert, one of two best-selling dictionaries in France, unveils a set of entries (including words, proper names and events) that will make their debut on dictionary the following year. With the release of the 2014 edition of the Le Petit Robert dictionary, “French kiss,” meaning to kiss with tongues, has finally entered the French language.

Though French kissing is widely recognized, there was never one word in the French language to describe this particular type of kiss. ‘Baiser/embrasser avec la langue’ (to kiss with the tongue) was commonly used to describe the action, until the slang term “galocher” cropped up and made it to the dictionary.

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Still reading? All right, enough for today… grab your loved ones, and start galocher!

 

By Sabina Grixoni

Editor and Social Media Strategist

Communication Trainee at TermCoord