Like Kissing Your Cousin
Following on from an old post at Vunex, a thought on the overworked subject of kissing:I have heard in the past young male Israelis use the slang term "bussa" to describe a masculine, aggressive, slap-you-on-the-back type of kiss (given to a friendly male on the cheek, or a startled female on the lips).
I had assumed that this term came (possibly through one of the Romance languages) from the Latin "basium".
However, yesterday I read in a language column in the newspaper that it in fact comes from the Arabic. Apparently in Arabic, "bussa" is also one of a few variants for "kiss" (another of which is "qubla").
Does anyone know if there is some connection between the Arabic and the Latin, or if the similarity is pure coincidence?
Labels: Language
posted by Daniel @ 2:06 AM
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