word for the sloppy Gallic export "to French
kiss" — though that certainly hasn't stopped any
citizen from doing so.
Now the oversight has been rectified.
The one-word verb "galocher" — to kiss with
tongues — is among new entries added to the
"Petit Robert" 2014 French dictionary, which hit
the shops Thursday.
It may surprise many that France — a country
famed for its amorous exploits and which gave
the world s*x-symbol Brigitte Bardot, romantic
photographer Robert Doiseau and even scandal-
hit former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-
Kahn — is only just linguistically embracing the
popular pastime.
Yet Laurence Laporte of the Robert publishing
house says that it's just the way language
evolves.
"We always had many expressions to describe
'French-kissing,' like 'kissing at length in the
mouth,' but it's true, we've never had one single
word," she said.
The term "French kiss" — once also called a
"Florentine kiss" — is popularly considered to
have been brought back to the English-speaking
world by soldiers returning from Europe after
World War I. At the time, the French had a
reputation for more adventurous s*xual
practices.
Laporte said "galocher" was a slang term that's
been around for a while "but only now is it being
officially recognized in a French dictionary."
"La galoche" is an ice-skating boot, so the new
term riffs evocatively on the idea of sliding
around the ice.
The word expert added a caveat about the power
of language. The lack of a specific term "never
stopped us from doing it," Laporte noted.
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