osculate en · VERB · etymology 1
Pronunciation
- /ˈɒskjəˌleɪt/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- /ˈɑskjəˌleɪt/ (General-American)
- (Southern-England) audio
- /ˈɑskjuˌleɪt/ (General-American)
- /ˈɒskjʊˌleɪt/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- audio
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin ōsculātus, perfect active participle of ōsculor (“to kiss”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from ōsculum (“a kiss”) + -or (verbal suffix), from ōs (“mouth”) + -culum (diminutive suffix). See also oscillate.
Meanings
-
(ambitransitive) To kiss.
And in the Olmsted Hotel in Cleveland he surprised a porter and a maid lasciviously osculating in a stairwell.
2001, Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections:
- To touch so as to have the same tangent and curvature at the point of contact.
- (intransitive) To make contact.
- (Vedic) To perform osculation.
- To form a connecting link between two genera.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| osculating | Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| osculated | Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| osculated | Tense=Past | lexicographic | |
| osculates | Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres | lexicographic |
Deriveds
osculatory · osculator · inosculate · interosculate · hyperosculate · osculating