Friday, May 22, 2009

buss

buss \BUS\, noun, verb:

1. A kiss; a playful kiss; a smack.
2. To kiss; especially to kiss with a smack.

Lucky guesser gets a buss upon his plucky kisser.
-- William H. Gass, Cartesian Sonata and Other Novellas
Exchange a random peace greeting during Mass with a stranger in the next pew and the odds are roughly one in fifty that you shake the hand or buss the cheek of a parishioner who has had at least one marriage voided by a diocesan tribunal.
-- Robert H. Vasoli, What God Has Joined Together

Buss is probably from Old English basse, from Latin basium, "kiss."

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