Being a bit of a hopeless romantic as a teen, I discovered that the Romans had three kinds of kisses.

The first kiss was called osculum. This kiss was used for greeting acquaintances, much like the Bisou that the French use today. A quick peck on the cheek.

The second was the basium kiss. This was a kiss shared between two close (but platonic) friends. Still used in greeting, two lips meeting each other, maybe lingering for a second, maybe not.

The third kiss was suavium. This was the lovers’ kiss. Lips on lips with tongue included. Long, passionate, and repeated.

Why should you know this? No reason at all, I just remembered it and wanted to write about it. For those interesting in delving deeper into this subject, I found a great blog post all about it here.