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CATAGLOTTISM/kætəˈɡlɒtɪz(ə)m/Help with IPA

Kissing using the tongue, French kissing.

This term, albeit potentially useful, is so rare that I cannot find a modern example outside lists of weird words. Its Greek prefix — meaning “down”, but often with an implication of disparagement or abuse or of something inferior or unpleasant — turns up also in cataclysm, catastrophe, catafalque, and catarrh — a dispiriting set of bed-fellows for this mildly erotic term. Its second part is from Greek glottis, a variant of glossa, tongue. As that word could also mean “throat” (and has been borrowed to provide the English medical term for the vocal cords and the space between them), you might translate the stem of cataglottism as deep throat. But let’s not go there ...

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Page created 1 Jun. 2002
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