The Encyclopedia on the Alchemy of Women Vol. II

By Keenan Booker

The Encyclopedia on The Alchemy of Women Vol. I & II gives the definitions and explanations of over 5,000 years of Magic that supports the woman's secret world. The words in this Encyclopedia are used in the average woman's everyday life. This unique terminology and its applications come from these subjects: Medical Sciences, Social Sciences, The Definitions of Girls Names, Ancient Civilizations, Goddess's of Mythology, Early & Modern American Slang, Religions, Botany (Plants), Zoology (Animals), Cosmetics, Psychology, Biology and Cosmology etc.,. This Encyclopedia provides clarification to the Chaos that women collectively operate by, regardless of age or race. It is an explanation to their innate confusion in comprehending the world. The Encyclopedia on The Alchemy of Women is the Final Directory & Manual written that allows a Man to be able to Control and also Avoid their attempts of attack and their desire to neglect. For Women it will authorize you to "Know Thyself." Love Each other & Thank You for Your Strength.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jul 11, 2023
• ISBN: 9781943820214

Book preview

K

Ka: The kꜣ (ka) was the Egyptian concept of vital essence, which distinguishes the difference between a living and a dead person, with death occurring when the kꜣ left the body. The Egyptians also believed that the kꜣ was sustained through food and drink. For this reason food and drink offerings were presented to the dead, although it was the kꜣ within the offerings that was consumed, not the physical aspect. The notion of the ka was a dominating concept of the next life in the Old Kingdom. In a less pure form, it lived into the Middle Kingdom, and lost much of its importance in the New Kingdom, although the ka always remained the recipient of offerings.[11]

Kailey: Kailey is a surname and feminine first or middle name. The name has multiple origins depending on the spelling. In English it means keeper of the keys. In Scottish Gaelic it derives from Cèilidh, meaning social celebration. However, there are other meanings in various languages. Kailey is Greek for rare beauty. It is also a Welsh name meaning slender. In Hebrew it means laurel, crown or princess. Kailey is also a surname found in the Ramgharia and Jatts peoples of Punjab, India.[11]

Kali: Kali (Sanskrit: काळि, IAST: Kālļī), also known as Dakshina Kālikā (Sanskrit: कालिका), is a Hindu goddess, who is considered to be the master of death, time and change. She is also said to be the Parvati, that is the supreme of all powers, or the ultimate reality.

Kālī is the feminine form of time or the fullness of time with the masculine noun kāla, which is a name of Lord Shiva. By extension, time as changing aspect of nature that bring things to life or death.

The homonym kāla (appointed time) is distinct from kāla (black), but these became associated through popular etymology. She is called Kali Mata (the dark mother) and also kālī which can be read here either as a proper name or as a description the dark blue one. Kālī is also the feminine form of Kāla (an epithet of Shiva) and thus the consort of Shiva.

The figure of Kāli conveys death, destruction and the consuming aspects of reality. As such, she is also a forbidden thing, or even death itself.  In Réunion, a part of France in the Indian Ocean, veneration for Saint Expeditus (French: Saint Expédit) is very popular. The Malbars have Tamil ancestry but are, at least nominally, Catholics. The saint is identified with Kali. Kali (fish), a genus of snaketooth fish, Kali (plant), a genus of plants including tumbleweed. (see Sarah Kali[11]))

Kalista: Also spelled Calista, Callista, Callistee, Kallista, and Kallistee, comes from the Greek for most beautiful (feminine) (καλλίστη – kallístē). Callista is a genus of saltwater clams, marine, bivalve molluscs in the family Veneridae, the venus clams. Also, a genus of mostly epiphytic and lithophytic orchids in the family Orchidaceae. The genus Calluna was formerly included in Erica.[11]

Kamari: Kamari as a girl’s name has English-American origins meaning great joy. Is related to the name Ka. It is an Hindi-originated name meaning The Enemy of Desire. In Arabic Kamari means Moon.[11]

Kama Sutra: A sex manual written in India by Vatsyayana in the second century B.C. Discusses techniques, positions, and spiritual aspects. First English translation and publication by Sir Richard Burton 1883.[16]

Kamin effect: A tendency for animals that have been conditioned in avoidance behavior to later demonstrate a U-shaped curve of performance, first avoiding, then not avoiding, and then avoiding.[16]

Karen: Karen means pure, clear, or child of beauty in Eastern and Western cultures. In English, it is a name derived from the name Catherine. However, in other countries such as Iran and Armenia, it is a masculine name deriving from Middle Iranian. The name is also found in modern Africa, as well as in East Asia (particularly Japan).

Karen entered the English language from Danish, where it has been a short form of Katherine since medieval times. It became popular in the English-speaking world in the 1940’s. Variation: Caren, Caryn, Karena, Karin, Karyn, and others.[11](see Catherine)

Karezza: Coitus in which orgasm is not to be achieved, practiced for contraception and to concentrate and retain the sexual energies released by intercourse. The techniques are derived from principles of Hindu Tantrism. Rarely spelled caressa, carezza, karessa, also known as coitus prolongatus, coitus reservatus.[16]

Karina:  Karina is a variant spelling of Carina (from Latin carus = love) or a short form of Katarina/Katrina. It is mainly used in Scandinavia, Poland, Italy, Spain, Portugal and the Americas. In Poland, it is more likely derived from Ekaterina, another variant of Catherine – meaning pure. Variations: Carina, Katrina, Karine, Karin, Katerina, Kabrina, Kariena, Kareena, Karena.[11]

Karlie: Karlie is an English and Swedish name that is a feminine form of Karl, a diminutive form of Karla and an alternate form of Karly. Karl (also Carl) is a Germanic variant of the male given name Charles meaning free man, strong man, man, manly.[11]

Karma: A force believed to be generated by the ethical quality of personal actions, personal intentions, or both, that subsequently influences, either positively or negatively, that person. This force is also purported to propel a person to a particular status in a later incarnation.[16] Alchemy: What goes around comes around.[72]

The Devil has a Tail, therefore He Will Chase It

The Woman has a Mirror, therefore She Will Face It

The Man has his Sword, and He shall Embrace It

The Child has Time and Let No One Take It

THE GOD 720

Kate: The name associated with whores, especially in lowland Scots. In MM III.i.458, one of the bawd Overdone’s acquaintances is Kate Keep-down (cf. down).[3] A mans favorite prostitute. The term probably came from the Dutch word kat, which referred to wanton women.[19]

Katie: Katie is an English feminine name. It is a form of Katherine, Kate, Caitlin, Kathleen, Katey and their related forms.[11]

Kay: Kay as a girl’s name is most often used as a short form of the Greek name Katherine meaning pure and its variants.[11]

Keen:  Keen as a noun or verb comes from the Irish and Scottish Gaelic term caoineadh (to cry, to weep), as well as caoine (gentleness, pleasantness, beauty), and references to it from the 7th, 8th, and 12th centuries are extensive.[11]

Keep: Maintain a mistress or lover. The word has a scurrilous flavor on Thersites’s tongue (T&C V.i.93): ‘They say he keeps a Trojan drab’ (q.v.).[3] Alchemy: The vagina is not designed to keep, it is designed to go in and out.[72]

Kegel: Kegel exercise, also known as pelvic-floor exercise, involves repeatedly contracting and relaxing the muscles that form part of the pelvic floor, now sometimes colloquially referred to as the Kegel muscles. The exercise can be performed many times a day, for several minutes at a time but takes one to three months to begin to have an effect.

Kegel exercises aim to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles. These muscles have many functions within the human body. In women, they are responsible for: holding up the bladder, preventing urinary stress incontinence (especially after childbirth), vaginal and uterine prolapse. Several tools exist to help with these exercises, although various studies debate the relative effectiveness of different tools versus traditional exercises.

Kegel exercises aim to improve muscle tone by strengthening the pubococcygeus muscles of the pelvic floor. Kegel is a popular prescribed exercise for pregnant women to prepare the pelvic floor for physiological stresses of the later stages of pregnancy and childbirth. Various advisors recommend Kegel exercises for treating vaginal prolapse and preventing uterine prolapse.[8]

In women and for treating prostate pain and swelling resulting from benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Kegel exercises may have benefits in treating urinary incontinence in both men and women. Kegel exercises may also increase sexual gratification, allowing women to complete pompoir and aiding men in reducing premature ejaculation. The many actions performed by Kegel muscles include holding in urine and avoiding defecation. Reproducing this type of muscle action can strengthen the Kegel muscles. The action of slowing or stopping the flow of urine may be used as a test of correct pelvic-floor exercise technique.

The components of levator ani (the pelvic diaphragm), namely pubococcygeus, puborectalis and iliococcygeus, contract and relax as one muscle. Hence pelvic-floor exercises involve the entire levator ani rather than pubococcygeus alone. Pelvic-floor exercises may help in cases of fecal incontinence and in pelvic organ prolapse conditions e.g. rectal prolapse.[11]

Kegel Perineometer: A Kegel perineometer or vaginal manometer is an instrument for measuring the strength of voluntary contractions of the pelvic floor muscles. Arnold Kegel (1894–1972) was the gynecologist who invented the Kegel perineometer (used for measuring vaginal air pressure) and Kegel exercises (squeezing of the muscles of the pelvic floor). This followed the observation that muscles of the pelvic floor inevitably weakened following the trauma of childbirth. Ascertaining the air pressure inside the vagina by insertion of a perineometer, while requesting the woman to squeeze as hard as possible, indicates whether or not she would benefit from strengthening the vaginal muscles using the Kegel exercises. More modern electromyograph (EMG) perineometers, which measure electrical activity in the pelvic floor muscles, may be more effective in this purpose. Assessment of pelvic floor strength during gynaecological examination may help to identify women with fascial defects of the pelvic floor, as well as those at risk of genital prolapse or urinary incontinence. Both the Kegel perineometer and a digital examination are effective and concordant in their results in this assessment.[11]

Keira: Keira is a Anglicized version of Ciara and means Little Dark One. Variations: Kira.[11]

Keisha: Keisha is a name of Hebrew origin, from Keziah or Kezia. Keziah was a daughter of Job in the Hebrew Bible. A number of etymologies have been suggested, among them the Hebrew term for the spice tree Cassia.[11]

Kennedy: There have been several different etymologies given for the surname. One is that the name is an Anglicisation of Ó Cinnéide, meaning grandson of Cinnédidh or grandson of Cinnéidigh, with both of these personal names meaning helmet headed. Ceanéidigh could be related to the old Gaelic name Cennétig, which is known from Cennétig mac Lorcáin, the father of the Irish high king Brian mac Cennétig, who himself was also known as Brian Bóruma or Brian Boru. There is also an Irish Kennedy family and a Scottish Kennedy clan of Carrick in Ayrshire, which are unrelated to one another. Another possibility is that Kennedy is an Anglicisation of the Gaelic Ó Ceannéidigh meaning grandson of Ceannéidigh. Ceannéidigh is a given name derived from the Gaelic words ceann, meaning head, and éidigh, meaning ugly or fierce. In some etymologies, the element ceann is given as chief or leader.[11]

Kenya: The earliest recorded version of the modern name was written by German explorer Johann Ludwig Krapf in the 19th century. While travelling with a Kamba caravan led by the legendary long-distance trader Chief Kivoi, Krapf spotted the mountain peak and asked what it was called. Kivoi told him Kĩ-Nyaa or Kĩĩma- Kĩĩnyaa, probably because the pattern of black rock and white snow on its peaks reminded him of the feathers of the male ostrich. The Agikuyu, who inhabit the slopes of Mt. Kenya, call it Kĩrĩma Kĩrĩnyaga in Kikuyu, while the Embu call it Kirenyaa. All three names have the same meaning.[11]

Keratin (Horny Material): Keratin is one of a family of fibrous structural proteins known as scleroproteins. α-Keratin is a type of keratin found in vertebrates. It is the key structural material making up scales, hair, nails, feathers, horns, claws, hooves, calluses, and the outer layer of skin among vertebrates and the slime threads of hagfish. Keratin also protects epithelial cells from damage or stress. Keratin is extremely insoluble in water and organic solvents. Keratin monomers assemble into bundles to form intermediate filaments, which are tough and form strong unmineralized epidermal appendages found in reptiles, birds, amphibians, and mammals. Excessive keratinization participate in fortification of certain tissues such as in horns of cattle and rhinos, and armadillos’ osteoderm. α-keratins are found in all vertebrates. Keratin filaments are abundant in keratinocytes in the hornified layer of the epidermis; these are proteins which have undergone keratinization. The harder β-keratins are found only in the sauropsids, that is all living reptiles and birds. They are found in the nails, scales, and claws of reptiles, in some reptile shells (testudines, such as tortoise, turtle, terrapin), and in the feathers, beaks, and claws of birds. Keratin is highly resistant to digestive acids if ingested, as occurs in the human disorder trichophagia. Thus, cats (which groom themselves with their tongues) regularly ingest hair, leading to the gradual formation of a hairball that may be vomited. Rapunzel syndrome, an extremely rare but potentially fatal intestinal condition in humans, is caused by trichophagia.[11](see Horns)

Keres: The Greek word κήρ means death or doom and appears as a proper noun in the singular and plural as Κήρ and Κῆρες to refer to divinities. Homer uses Κῆρες in the phrase κήρες θανάτοιο, Keres of death. By extension the word may mean plague, disease and in prose blemish or defect. The relative verb κεραΐζω or κείρω means ravage or plunder. Keres (Ancient Greek: Κῆρες), singular Ker (Κήρ), were female death-spirits. They were the goddesses who personified violent death and who were drawn to bloody deaths on battlefields. Although they were present during death and dying, they did not have the power to kill. All they could do was wait and then feast on the dead. The Keres were daughters of Nyx, and as such the sisters of beings such as Moirai, who controlled the fate of souls and Thanatos, the god of peaceful death. Some later authorities, such as Cicero, called them by a Latin name, Tenebrae (the Darknesses), and named them daughters of Erebus and Nyx.[11]

Key: Seize, hold; enclosure (first, of wickerwork). L cohum: strap holding plow beam to yoke; inchoare: to harness, to begin. Inchoate. Possibly colum: sieve; colare, colatum: filter, flow. colander. cullis; percolate. portcullis. cavea: cage; diminutive caveola; gaol, jail. Cadge is a back formation from cadger: hawker with eggs, poultry, etc., in a wicker basket. Fr. gabion, gabion, gabionade, and four more words in OED. It cabinet. Du decoy (de: the kooi: cage, from cavea). cajole: first, chatter like a jay in cage.

Her beauty was sold for an old man’s gold;

She’s a bird in a gilded cage.

-A.J. Lamb, 1900

Fr. coulee, couloir, coulisse, machiolate. Gc, cay, key, quay, haw: enclosure; hawthorn. (hem and haw imitative;)[1]

The phallic key for the vaginal lock is a commonplace. The start of Son 52 hints at it: ‘So am I as the rich whose blessed key Can bring him to his sweet up-locked treasure’(q.v.).[3] Alchemy: You are no man unless you possess the Keys, that is, phallus, car and home.[72]

Khalesi: From a title meaning queen (feminine form of Khal) in the constructed language Dothraki from the fantasy series A Song of Fire and Ice by George R. R. Martin.[11]

Khet: The ẖt (Egyptological spelling: khet), or physical form, had to exist for the soul (kꜣ/bꜣ) to have intelligence or the chance to be judged by the guardians of the underworld. Therefore, it was necessary for the body to be preserved as efficiently and completely as possible and for the burial chamber to be as personalized as it could be, with paintings and statuary showing scenes and triumphs from the deceased’s life.[11]

Khloe: (see Chloe)

Ki: Ki was the earth goddess in Sumerian religion, chief consort of the sky god An. Ki gave birth to Anunnaki, the most prominent of these deities being Enlil, god of the air.[11]

Kiara: Kiara may be a variant of the Italian name Chiara, meaning kind, or the Irish name Ciara, meaning dark-haired or plant boundary wall. In Japan, Kiara is an uncommon name typically given to males; its meaning is dependent upon the characters used to spell the name. In Persian, the name has varied definitions. It is said that Kiara means a queen who is keen on beautifying her territory or Clear. Variations: Chera, Chier, Ciara, Cyra, Keira, Keara, Kiara, Kiera, Ceara, Cier, Ciar.

Saint Ciera of Ireland (7th century - 679)

Feast Day: March 15.[11]

Kidnapper: Originally one who stole or decoyed children or apprentices from their parents or masters, to send them to the colonies; called also spiriting: but now used for all recruiting crimps for the king’s tropps, or those of the East India Company, and agents for indenting servants for the plantations, &c.[2]

Kikimora: Is a legendary creature, a female house spirit in Slavic mythology. Her role in the house is usually juxtaposed with that of the domovoy. The kikimora can either be a bad or a good spirit, which will depend on the behavior of the homeowner. When the kikimora inhabits a house, she lives behind the stove or in the cellar, and usually produces noises similar to those made by mice in order to obtain food. Kikimory (in plural) were the first traditional explanation for sleep paralysis in Russian folklore.  Most sources link the suffix -mora with the Proto-Slavic *morà (‘nightly spirit, bad dream’) and the Proto-Germanic *marōn (id.), as in the modern English nightmare.

In Polish folklore, mora are the souls of living people that leave the body during the night, and are seen as wisps of straw or hair or as moths. Accordingly, Polish mora, Czech můra denote both a kind of elf or spirit as well as a sphinx moth or night butterfly. Other Slavic languages with cognates that have the double meaning of moth are: Kashubian mòra, and Slovak mora.

In Slovene, Croatian and Serbian, mora refers to a nightmare. Mora or Mara is one of the spirits from ancient Slav mythology. Mara was a dark spirit that takes a form of a beautiful woman and then visits men in their dreams, torturing them with desire, and dragging life out of them. In Serbia, a mare is called mora, or noćnik/noćnica (night creature, masculine and feminine respectively). In Romania they were known as Moroi.

The word kikimora may have derived from the Udmurt (Finno-Ugric) word kikka-murt, meaning scarecrow (literally bag-made person).The kikimora might have the snout of a dog, a chicken beak or can even resemble a goat-like entity with glowing eyes and horns. In fact, it can take any part of an animal’s face or body. It is always feminine and can appear as an old woman or a beautiful girl. She might even appear as a deceased family member.

The swamp kikimora is usually described as a small, ugly, hunchbacked, thin, and scruffy old woman with a pointed nose and disheveled hair. She was said to use moss and grass as clothes. It was believed that she frightens people, knocks travelers off the road or even drowns them. She also kidnaps children.

It is a common belief that mora enters the room through the keyhole, sits on the chest of the sleepers and tries to strangle them (hence moriti, to torture, to bother, to strangle). To repel moras, children are advised to look at the window or to turn the pillow and make a sign of cross on it. In the early 19th century, Vuk Karadžić mentions that people would repel moras by leaving a broom upside down behind the door, or putting their belt on top of their sheets, or saying an elaborate prayer poem before they go to sleep.[11]

Kiley: (see Kylie)

Kimberly:  Kimberly (also Kimberley or Kimmberly) is a name of Old English origin. John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley, a place in Norfolk, England, popularised the name by giving it to a town in South Africa and a region in Australia. The first element, Kimber, reflects various Old English personal names; in the case of the Earldom in Norfolk this first appeared as Chineburlai in 1086 and seems to mean clearing of a woman called Cyneburg (Cyneburga in Latin). The second element is the Old English leah or leigh meadow, clearing in a woodland. From the meadow of the royal fortress or means white diamond. Variations: Kimberlee, Kimberleigh, Kimberley (also an Australian form of Kimball), Kim, Kimmie or Kimmy, Kimberley, Ki Ki.[11]

Kimberella: Kimberella is an extinct genus of bilaterian known only from rocks of the Ediacaran period. The slug-like organism fed by scratching the microbial surface on which it dwelt in a manner similar to the gastropods, although its affinity with this group is contentious. Specimens were first found in Australia’s Ediacara Hills, but recent research has concentrated on the numerous finds near the White Sea in Russia, which cover an interval of time from 555 to 558 million years ago.[11] Alchemy: One of the first organisms designed by the facehugger.[72]

Kind: Along the Germanic route, the head of the kith, of little knichin, the kin and kindred, is the king (OE cynning), chief of the kind (noun), who is expected to be kind (adjective). Kind was early pronounced with a short i, and still is in German. There is a bitter pun in Hamlet’s first words in Shakespeare’s play: A little less than kin, and more than kind. In The Merchant of Venice, copulation is called the deed of kind, as when a couple has kindled.

Also along the Germanic line came ken, kenning; know, knowledge, acknowledge; know how; con; couth: knowing how, and the now more frequent uncouth.[1]

The phrase in AYLI III.ii.101 means to follow one’s nature, specifically sexual instincts: ‘If the cat will after kind, So, be sure, will Rosalind.’ When the clown (A&C V.ii.261) cautions ‘that the worm will do his kind’, the asp’s poisonous propensities combine with its phallic identity and the act of kind.[3]

Kindle: Give birth to. Rosalind (AYLI III.ii.329) says she is as native to Arden ‘As the coney that you see dwell where she is kindled’.[3]

Kindness: A type of behavior characterized by the promotion of another’s welfare, without expectation of personal benefit or gain.[16] Alchemy: There is a thin line between a woman’s kindness and manipulation.[72]

Kinesic behavior: Communication by the use of body motions rather than formal language, as in winking, shrugging, changing or facial expressions.[16]

King-slave fantasy: A type of fantasy in which the person plays a role of king or slave or, alternating between the roles, plays both parts.[16]

Kink: In human sexuality, kinkiness is the use of non-conventional sexual practices, concepts or fantasies. The term derives from the idea of a bend (cf. a kink) in one’s sexual behaviour, to contrast such behaviour with straight or vanilla sexual mores and proclivities. It is thus a colloquial term for non-normative sexual behaviour. The term kink has been claimed by some who practice sexual fetishism as a term or synonym for their practices, indicating a range of sexual and sexualistic practices from playful to sexual objectification and certain paraphilias.[11]

Kiss: Kiss. Imitative. English has grown limited. The olden osculate takes longer to pronounce than to perform, although OED lists 14 words from its stem, L osculus, diminutive of os: mouth-including osculum pacis: the kiss of peace. The hearty buss, earlier bass, has in explicably gone out of favor (save as a teenagers’ game, blunderbuss: to kiss the wrong party; omnibus: to kiss all the girls in the room, etc.). The word echoed along the years from the Roman Catullus (60 B.C.), Da me basia mille: Give me a thousand kisses and then begin again. One echo is Ben Johnson’s Song to Celia, which begins:

Kiss me sweet. First give a hundred…

Add a thousand, and so more

Till you equal with the store

All the grass that Romney yields,

Or the sands in Chelsea’s fields,

Or the drops in silver Thames,

Or the stars that gild his streams.

Herrick, in Hesperides (1648), makes this distinction:

Kissing and bussing differ both in this,

We buss out wantons, but our wives we kiss.

Tennyson (1847) praised a man who nor burnt the grange, nor bussed the milking-maid. Browning (1879) viewed a more sentimental moment: So blubbered we, and bussed, and went to bed.

The early E bebass was defined as to kiss all over. A smack, also imitative, is a slang substitute, but more often than an oscular conjunction it means a quick junction of had and cheek. Also kissable, kissing-kin, or kissing-cousin; Quaintly, Bulwer Lytton wrote in his best novel, Pelham (1828): This Hebe, Mr. Gordon greeted with a loving kiss, which the kissee resented.

kiss-off is slang for an abrupt simissal. A Judas kiss, by which Judas revealed Jesus to the executioners, now means a fond greeting as a prelude to dismissal or other injuru. The kiss of death has recently been countered by the kiss of life: lip-to-lip attempt at resuscitation. Jonathan Swift defined bachelor’s fare as bread and cheese, and kisses. Oscar Wilde, in The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), was more solemn:

And each man kills the thing he loves.

By each let this be heard….

The coward does it with a kiss,

The brave man with a sword!

In As You Like It the disguised Rosalind gives advice to her avowed lover, Orlando: Very good orators, when they are out, they will spit; and for lovers lacking – God warn us! – matter, the cleanliest shift is to kiss.[1]

A kiss is the touch or pressing of one’s lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, sexual activity, sexual arousal, affection, respect, greeting, friendship, peace, and good luck, among many others. In some situations, a kiss is a ritual, formal or symbolic gesture indicating devotion, respect, or sacrament. The word came from Old English cyssan (to kiss), in turn from coss (a kiss).

Some anthropologists believe that kissing is instinctual and intuitive, having evolved from activities like suckling or premastication. Others suggest it evolved from checking the health of a potential mate via inspecting their saliva, and others believe that it is a learned behavior. The earliest reference to kissing-like behavior comes from the Vedas, Sanskrit scriptures that informed Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, around 3,500 years ago,

In Cyropaedia (370 BC), Xenophon wrote about the Persian custom of kissing in the lips upon departure while narrating the departure of Cyrus the Great (c.600 BC) as a boy from his Median kinsmen.  According to Herodotus (5th century BC), when two Persians meet, the greeting formula expresses their equal or inequal status. They do not speak; rather, equals kiss each other on the mouth, and in the case where one is a little inferior to the other, the kiss is given on the cheek.

During the later Classical period, affectionate mouth-to-mouth kissing was first described in the Hindu epic the Mahabharata. Anthropologist Vaughn Bryant argues kissing spread from India to Europe after Alexander the Great conquered parts of Punjab in northern India in 326 BCE. The Romans were passionate about kissing and talked about several types of kissing. Kissing the hand or cheek was called an osculum. Kissing on the lips with mouth closed was called a basium, which was used between relatives. A kiss of passion was called a suavium.

Kissing was not always an indication of eros, or love, but also could show respect and rank as it was used in Medieval Europe. The study of kissing started sometime in the nineteenth century and is called philematology,  It is a Christmas custom for a couple who meet under a mistletoe to kiss. Mistletoe is commonly used as a Christmas decoration, though such use was rarely alluded to until the 18th century. The tradition has spread throughout the English-speaking world but is largely unknown in the rest of Europe. It was described in 1820 by American author Washington Irving in his The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.:

The mistletoe is still hung up in farm-houses and kitchens at Christmas, and the young men have the privilege of kissing the girls under it, plucking each time a berry from the bush. When the berries are all plucked the privilege ceases. In some Western cultures, it is a custom for people to kiss at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve. Some hold the superstition that failing to kiss someone ensures a year of loneliness.

When celebrating at a Scottish Hogmanay party, it is custom to try to give a kiss to everyone in the room after the stroke of midnight the bells.  It is a Western custom for a newly married couple to exchange a kiss at the conclusion of their wedding ceremony. Some Christians hold the belief that the kiss symbolizes the exchange of souls between the bride and the groom, fulfilling the scripture that the two shall become one flesh. However, some trace the tradition to an ancient Roman tradition, whereby the exchange of a kiss signified the completion of a contract.  Although the kiss is not a formal requirement of the ceremony, most regard the gesture as a joyful start of the marriage. The most traditional way guests entice the new couple to kiss is by clinking their glasses. An ancient Christian tradition explains that the clinking sound scares the devil away and the couple kisses in his absence.  Another tradition is to ring bells placed at the tables by the wedding party. A ring of the bell signals the bride and groom to kiss.

A French kiss is so called because at the beginning of the 20th century, in the English-speaking world, the French had acquired a reputation for more adventurous and passionate sex practices. It originated in America and Great Britain. In France, it is referred to as un baiser amoureux (a lover’s kiss) or un baiser avec la langue (a kiss with the tongue), and was previously known as un baiser Florentin (a Florentine kiss).

A French kiss, also known as Cataglottism or a tongue kiss, is an amorous kiss in which the participants’ tongues extend to touch each other’s lips or tongue. A kiss with the tongue stimulates the partner’s lips, tongue and mouth, which are sensitive to the touch and induce physiological sexual arousal. The oral zone is one of the principal erogenous zones of the body. The implication is of a slow, passionate kiss which is considered intimate, romantic, erotic or sexual. The sensation when two tongues touch, also known as tongue touching, has been proven to stimulate endorphin release and reduce acute stress levels. French kissing is often described as ‘1st base’, and is used by many as an indicator of what stage a relationship has reached. Extended French kissing may be part of making out.(French Kiss)

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Hand-kissing is a greeting gesture that indicates courtesy, politeness, respect, admiration or even devotion by one person toward another. A hand-kiss was considered a respectful way for a gentleman to greet a lady. Today, non-ritual hand-kissing is rare and takes place mostly within conservative upper class or diplomatic contexts. Today, the hand kiss has largely been replaced by a kiss on the cheek or a handshake. A non-ritual hand-kiss can be initiated by the lady, who would hold out her right hand with the back of the hand facing upward; or by the gentleman extending his right hand with the palm facing upward to invite the lady to put her right hand lightly on it facing downward. The gentleman may bow towards the offered hand and (often symbolically) would touch her knuckles with his lips, while lightly holding the offered hand. However, the lips do not actually touch the hand in modern tradition, especially in a formal environment where any intimate or romantic undertones could be considered inappropriate. The gesture is short, lasting less than a second.

A hand-kiss was considered a respectful way for a gentleman to greet a lady. The practice originated in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Spanish courts of the 17th and 18th centuries. The gesture is still at times observed in Central and Eastern Europe, namely, Poland, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Russia. Traditionally, the hand-kiss was initiated by a woman, who offered her hand to a man to kiss. The lady offering her hand was expected to be of the same or higher social status than the man. It was a gesture of courtesy and extreme politeness, and it was considered impolite and even rude to refuse an offered hand. Today, the practice is very uncommon in Northern European countries, and has been largely replaced by a kiss on the cheek or a handshake.

A fresco from Pompeii showing the kiss of a Roman couple.

Cheek kissing is a ritual or social kissing gesture to indicate friendship, family relationship, perform a greeting, to confer congratulations, to comfort someone, to show respect. A kiss in a religious context is common. In earlier periods of Christianity or Islam, kissing became a ritual gesture, and is still treated as such in certain customs, as when kissing… relics, or a bishop’s ring. In Judaism, the kissing of the Torah scroll, a prayer book, and a prayer shawl is also common. Crawley notes that it was very significant of the affectionate element in religion to give so important a part to the kiss as part of its ritual. In the early Church the baptized were kissed by the celebrant after the ceremony, and its use was even extended as a salute to saints and religious heroes, with Crawley adding, Thus Joseph kissed Jacob, and his disciples kissed Paul. Joseph kissed his dead father, and the custom was retained in our civilization, as the farewell kiss on dead relatives, although certain sects prohibit this today.

A distinctive element in the Christian liturgy was noted by Justin in the 2nd century, now referred to as the kiss of peace, and once part of the rite in the primitive Mass. Conybeare has stated that this act originated within the ancient Hebrew synagogue, and Philo, the ancient Jewish philosopher called it a kiss of harmony, where, as Crawley explains, the Word of God brings hostile things together in concord and the kiss of love. Saint Cyril also writes, "this kiss is the sign that our souls are united, and that we banish all remembrance of injury.

A kiss of affection can also take place after death. In Genesis 50:1, it is written that when Jacob was dead, Joseph fell upon his father’s face and wept upon him and kissed him. And it is told of Abu Bakr, Muhammad’s first disciple, father-in-law, and successor, that, when the prophet was dead, he went into the latter’s tent, uncovered his face, and kissed him. Nyrop writes that the kiss is the last tender proof of love bestowed on one we have loved, and was believed, in ancient times, to follow mankind to the nether world.

Nyrop notes that the kiss of peace was used as an expression of deep, spiritual devotion in the early Christian Church. Christ said, for instance, Peace be with you, my peace I give you, and the members of Christ’s Church gave each other peace symbolically through a kiss. St Paul repeatedly speaks of the holy kiss, and, in his Epistle to the Romans, writes: Salute one another with an holy kiss and his first Epistle to the Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 5:26), he says: Greet all the brethren with an holy kiss.

The kiss of peace was also used in secular festivities. During the Middle Ages, for example, Nyrop points out that it was the custom to seal the reconciliation and pacification of enemies by a kiss. Even knights gave each other the kiss of peace before proceeding to the combat, and forgave one another all real or imaginary wrongs. The holy kiss was also found in the ritual of the Church on solemn occasions, such as baptism, marriage, confession, ordination, or obsequies. However, toward the end of the Middle Ages the kiss of peace disappears as the official token of reconciliation.[11]

Kissing (cavity): As long as you are taking practicing oral health and hygiene habits, you don’t need to worry about spreading dangerous, cavity-causing germs with your kisses. However, avoid doing things that could spread oral bacteria to small children.(https://www.advantagedental.com/blog/can-kissing-lead-to-cavities)

The kiss by contact between the lips or neighbouring parts of the skin is of European origin, and even here is a comparatively recent practice, for the ancients very rarely allude to it.  Its erotic significance was early pointed out by Indian, Oriental, and Roman poets.  Amongst the Mongol races the so-called olfactory kiss (smell-kiss) is in much more common use.  In this the nose is opposed to the cheek of the beloved person, and the expired air and the odour arising from the cheek are inhaled.

With the diffusion of European civilization, the European kiss of contact has also been diffused.  It is no longer possible to determine whether the peculiar connexion between the lips and the genital organs, as manifested for example by the growth of hair on the upper lip at puberty in the male sex, and also by the well known thick sensual lips often seen in individuals with exceptionally powerful sexual impulses, is originally primary, or merely a secondary result of the employment of the lips in a sexual caress.

To our consideration of the kiss we may naturally append a few remarks on the role of the sense of taste in human love. Inasmuch as taste is almost invariably closely connected with smell, we are rarely able to prove in an individual case whether an impression of taste or an impression of smell more powerfully affects the vita sexualis.  In kissing, an unconscious tasting of the beloved person seems often to play a part; and as regardes the kissing of other parts of the body, especially the genital organs, at the acme of sexual excitement this undoubtedly often occurs.  In Norwegian folk-tales, and in a South Hungarian song published by Friedrich S. Krauss, this tasting of the woman is very realistically described. The taste for sweets has also been largely associated with sexuality.  Children who are fond of sweets, who have, as it is called, a sweet tooth, are also sensually disposed, sexually more excitable, and more inclined to the practice of onanism, than other children.  The sensory impulses have therefore been classified as the hunger impulse and the sexual impulse respectively.  A certain amount of truth appears to lie in these observations. (The Sexual Life of Our Time: A Complete Encyclopedia of the Sexual Sciences in their Relation to Modern Civilization by Dr. Iwan Bloch Falstaff Press inc. New York: 1937)

Kiss Mine Arse (Ass): An offer, as Fielding observes, very frequently made, but never, as he could learn, literally accepted. A kiss mine arse fellow. [2](see Osculum Inflame)

Kitchen: Entertain (sexually). CE V.i.417 is OED’s only example in the sense of ‘to entertain in the kitchen, to furnish with kitchen-fare’: There is a fat friend at your master’s house, That kitchened me for you today at dinner. She now shall be my sister, not my wife.’ The latter remark suggests that this ‘fat friend’ has entertained as a wife, though now she is to be sister-in-law.[3] Alchemy: The Kitchen is a womans workshop as the bedroom is where designs her blueprint.[72]

Kitchen Witch: A kitchen witch, sometimes called a cottage witch or a Scandinavian kitchen witch doll, is a poppet or homemade doll resembling a stereotypical witch or crone displayed in residential kitchens as a good luck charm and to ward off bad spirits.[11]

Knobstick Wedding: A knobstick wedding is the forced marriage of a pregnant single woman with the man known or believed to be the father. It derives its name from the staves of office carried by the church wardens whose presence was intended to ensure that the ceremony took place. After the passing of the Bastardy Act in 1733 it became the responsibility of the father to pay for the maintenance of the child. Local authorities therefore encouraged the woman to enter into a marriage with the person presumed to be the father in an attempt to reduce their spending and shift the responsibility to the identified man. The practice of forcing a man to marry a woman whom he had made pregnant is also known as a shotgun wedding. Knobstick weddings, however, more usually refer to those arrangements forced by a local parish. [11]

Knock: To knock a woman; to have carnal knowledge of her.  To knock off; to conclude: phrase borrowed from the blacksmith. To knock under; to submit.[2]

Knockout Drops: Slang for drugs that are added to alcohol to produce compliance, vulnerability, loss of consciousness.[16]

Knot: The Fate-goddess wove and tied together the threads of life, according to the ancients.  Marriage is still called tying the knot because it used to be viewed as a binding of two life-threads by the Goddess Aphrodite, or Juno. Egyptians’ Isis-Hathor bound or loosed the lives of men with Tat, the Knot of Fate, and taught the art of making magic knots.  Sometimes she bore the title of the knot itself, Tait. High-ranking Egyptians were promised she would personally weave their cerements, including bandages from the hand of Tait. In Egypt, holy mysteries in general were shetat, she-knots.

Pagan religions related the art of knotting to binding and loosing the forces of creation and destruction, the same power claimed by the papacy for the alleged heirs of St. Peter (Matthew 16:19). The windings of Fate and the mysteries of Nature were often symbolized by elaborate knotwork, as in the intricate knot-patterns of Scandinavian and Saracenic monuments.

In 1814 Sir Walter Scott found one Bessie Millie selling winds by the devil’s help to sailors in the form of knotted cords. British witches claimed to stop nosebleeds by tying knots in red thread, the classic Fate-weaver’s blood symbol. Weaver’s thread was also thought to cure diseases of the groin when knotted with a window’s name pronounced at each knot.  On the other hand, witches could make men impotent with a magic know called ligature. Predictably, men said this was a detestable impiety deserving the death penalty. According to a canon of the church, God’s opinion was self-contradictory. Ligature could occur only with God’s permission and could be cured only with God’s help.

The Jews so feared magic knots that rabbinic law forbade tying any knots on the Sabbath; though one rabbi said it was legal to tie a knot that could be untied with one hand.  Moslems said Mohammed nearly died of a sickness prepared by Jewish witches with a cord of knots, which was discovered by Archangel Gabriel, who prayed over each knot and saved his life. The knots were loosened by speaking verses of the Koran.  Moslems still believe that Surah CXIII of the Koran will stop the evil of women who are blowers on knots.

Knot magic is performed by the Mexican recibidora (midwife) in complicated tyings of umbilical cords. Greeks still remember the life-knots of the Moerae, saying of a dead man, his thread is cut. The same triple Fates govern the Nordic Knot of three interlocking triangles, known as the Knot of the Vala. Formed of three female-genital symbols, this invoked the Great Vala (Freya) who wove the fates of men.[5]

couple. Othello (IV.ii.61) ironically distorts Proverbs 5:15 (Geneva version, 1560), where harlotry is condemned and men are bidden to ‘Drinke the water of thy cisterne, and the rivers out of… thine onwe well.’ Here Desdemona is either a ‘Fountain from the which my current runs’, since she possesses his heart (cf. fountain); or, if she is corrupt, a stagnant ‘cistern for foul toads To know and gender in’. emblems. Marina (Per xvi.143 = IV.ii.146) determines that ‘Untied I still my virgin knot will keep’, This is varied in Tem IV.i.15, where Miranda’s ‘virgin knot’ will remain unbroken until marriage, loss of virginity rendered as the Roman ritual of untying the bride’s girdle for bed. But this union itself is represented as a ‘nuptial knot’ (3H6 III.iii.55), hardly distinct from that true-love knot which endlessly unites faithful lovers. Bertram plays on this (AW III.ii.21): ‘I have wedded her, not bedded her, and sworn to make the not eternal.’ Married couples ‘knit their souls… in self-figured knots’ (Cym II,.iii,114). Capulet (R&J IV.ii.24) is impatient to marry off his daughter: ‘I’ll have this knot knit up tomorrow morning.’[3]

A crew, gang, or fraternity. He has tied a knot with his tongue, that he cannot untie with his teeth; i.e. he is married.[2] Alchemy: Psychologically, a knot is any headache or metaphysical stomach twisting that is incorporated by way of argument or guilt tripping done by a woman to a man. The knot is created intentionally to stop or weaken a mans focus and/or workload. It is done out of the jealousy a woman has against men and their allowance of freedom from internal pain and confusion. It is one of the root forms of Witchcraft.[72] (see Tieing the Knot)

Know: Have carnal acquaintance with. In AW V.iii.289, Diana protests her innocence: ‘if ever I knew man ‘twas you’. Mariana (MM V.i.185) refers to a bed-substitution: ‘I have known my husband, yet my husband Knows not that ever he knew me’; and 199: ‘Angelo…thinks he knows that he ne’er knew my body, But knows, he thinks, that he knows Isabel’s.’ Adonis (V&A 525) protests his green youth: ‘Before I know myself, seek not to know me’; and Hero (Ado IV.i.180) protests her innocence: ‘If I know more of any man alive Than that which maiden modesty doth warrant, Let all my sins lack mercy.’ Slender (MWW I.i.227) blunderingly declares: ‘if there be no great love in the beginning, yet heaven may decrease it upon better acquaintance, when we are married and have more occasion to know one another.’ Pandarus (T&C I.ii.62) urges Troilus in preference to Hector: ‘Do you know a man if you see him?’; and Cressida responds with play on a full frontal view: ‘Ay, if I ever saw him before and knew him.’ In Mac IV.iii.126, Malcolm resorts to a ppl adj., being as ‘yet Unknown to woman’ (i.e. still a virgin). Giacomo (Cym II.iv.50) uses the sb.: ‘Had I not brought The knowledge of your mistress home I grant We were to question farther, but I now Profess myself the winner of her honour’ (q.v.).[3] Alchemy: There is an African Proverb that states: You do not know a person until you fight them or fuck them. To have carnal knowledge of a woman is when she feels the freedom to make you aware of her personal secrets, only then will you know them. Psychology states that you do not know a person until you have lived with them for 2 years or more.[72]

Know Thyself: Gnothi Seauton a maxim on the walls of Apollo’s temple at Delphi, attributed to various Greek philosophers, mainly Socrates, but more appropriately attributed to Thales.[16]

Kori: (see Cor)

Ko Ham: (Sanskrit, Vedantic philosophy) Who am I? A question some meta-philosophic seekers ask throught their lives.[16]

Korsakoff’s psychosis/syndrome: An organic syndrome occurring primarily in chronic alcoholics and occasionally in patients with severe head trauma, prolonged infections, metallic poisoning, pellagra, or brain tumor.  Symptoms include anterograde amnesia with confabulation (invented stories), confusion, disorientation and in some cases polyneuritis. Sergie Korsakoff described the condition only as it affected alcoholics.[16]

Kristina: (see Christina)

Kṣitigarbha (Sanskrit: क्षितिगर्भ, Chinese: 地藏; pinyin: Dìzàng; Japanese: 地蔵; rōmaji: Jizō; Korean: 지장(地藏); romaja: Jijang; Vietnamese: Địa Tạng, Standard Tibetan: ས་ཡི་སྙིང་པོ་ Wylie: sa yi snying po) is a bodhisattva primarily revered in East Asian Buddhism and usually depicted as a Buddhist monk. His name may be translated as Earth Treasury, Earth Store, Earth Matrix, or Earth Womb. Kṣitigarbha is known for his vow to take responsibility for the instruction of all beings in the six worlds between the death of Gautama Buddha and the rise of Maitreya, as well as his vow not to achieve Buddhahood until all hells are emptied. He is therefore often regarded as the bodhisattva of hell-beings, as well as the guardian of children and patron deity of deceased children and aborted fetuses in Japanese culture, where he is known as Jizō (地蔵) or Ojizō-sama (お地蔵様). Usually depicted as a monk with a halo around his shaved head, he carries a staff to force open the gates of hell and a wish-fulfilling jewel to light up the darkness.[11]

Kteis: Representation of the female external genitals, usually as a symbol in cult worship.[16]

Kundalini: (Sanskrit, yogic philosophy) A concept of latent spirituality, in the form of a coiled serpent, who sleeps at the base of the spine, until a person begins to do spiritual practices to awaken her.  With the beginning of enlightenment, the snake gradually moves up the spinal canal to the head to merge with Shiva, at which point there is enlightenment.  Various Buddhist schools, such as those in Tibet, have adopted the metaphor and the belief and have incorporated practices geared toward such awakening. Some psychologists relate the concept to near death and other transcendental experiences.[16]

Kunyaza: Kunyaza is the Rwanda-Rundi name given to a sexual practice found in the Great Lakes region of East Africa which is meant to facilitate female orgasm and female ejaculation during intercourse.

The Rwanda-Rundi word kunyaza is derived from the verb kunyaàra, meaning to urinate but also signifying female ejaculation achieved by the practice. It is known with various names in different regions, the regular Ugandan term being kakyabali (often transliterated kachabali in anglicised spelling) or Western Jazz in slang, due to its prevalence in western regions such as Ankole. In that the term is now being used in English-language sources in Europe and North America, it can be considered an English word of African origin.

Kunyaza is usually considered a traditional practice in Rwanda. Folk tradition suggests that it dates back to the Third Dynasty rule: as the story has it, the queen chose one of her guards to have sex with, but he suffered performance anxiety and failed to penetrate her. Instead, his penis rubbing against her labia and clitoris gave her satisfaction. Publicised by Dr. Nsekuye Bizimana as a secure means to achieve female orgasm, often in the form of ejaculation, kunyaza involves a non-penetrative and a penetrative phase in progression:

The male partner first stimulates the labia minora of the female partner by tapping and also rubbing with his penis and then, at a certain level of arousal, proceeds to stimulate the internal surfaces of the labia minora and the vulval vestibule, including the urinary meatus in the same manner, followed by stimulation of the clitoris, vulval vestibule, labia minora and the vaginal opening. Removal of the female partner’s pubic hair is advised for more comfortable manipulation of the penis.

The male partner penetrates the vagina with alternating shallow thrusts (gucuga) at the vaginal opening with deep thrusts (gucumita) pushing against the cervix while maintaining exaggerated circular movements between vagina walls in a screwing fashion during penetration, often facilitating the movement by holding the penis between the middle and the index finger.

Nevertheless, other researchers emphasise that the version introduced by Dr. Bizimana diverts from the traditional kunyaza in fully omitting the labia elongation technique of gukuna, which is in fact seen as integral to kunyaza. As kunyaza involves some commitment of time, and, on the part of the man, restraint, it is posited as a relationship signifier. A man only kunyazas a woman that he really cares for, whereas it would be odd to kunyaza a sex worker. Kunyaza is a recommended heterosexual practice for women to achieve sexual pleasure without penetration.[11]

Kwashiorkor: Infantile pellagra, a protein-deficiency disease observed in infants and small children who are deprived of essential nutrients during breast-feeding. Symptoms include fluid accumulation in the tissues, liver disorders, impaired growth, distention of the abdomen, and pigment changes in the skin and hair.  Normal cerebral development also may be impaired.  The condition found mainly in Third World countries.[16]

Kylie: Kylie is a name that comes from the Noongar, an Indigenous Australian people, from the word kiley, meaning ‘curved, returning stick, boomerang’.  From the Irish surname O’Kiely, which in turn derives from the Old Gaelic surname O’Cadhla, meaning ‘graceful or beautiful’, descendant(s) of the graceful one. Variations: Kyle, Kyla, Kylee, Kelley, Rayleigh, Kylee, Kayla, Kilee, Kileigh, Kiley, Kilee, Kylee, Kyleigh, Kyley, or Kyly.[11]

L

Labeling: Giving names, usually critical, to social behavior of an undesirable sort, thereby often making that behavior deviant by definition. A mediated response in cognitive thinking, specifically in problem solving and categorizing.[16]

La belle indifference: (beautiful indifference-French) Phrase originally used for a lack of concern for a person’s own physical disability. Seen in persons with hysteria who seem indifferent to the usual ideas associated with the neurotic state. Also manifested by patients with conversion disorders, possibly because the symptoms help to relieve anxiety and bring secondary gains in the form of sympathy and attention.[16]

Labia: Loose, hanging (as the lip), etc.. Gk lobos; E lobe. L labi, lapsum: lapse; labium, labrum: lip; lapsum: slip, begin to fall; totter under a burden; strive. labor, laborem: distress, hardship, work.  laborare, laboratum: take pains.  E labial, labiate, labium, labellum. labile, labret. lapse, collapse, elapse, prolapse, relapse. supralabial. supralapsarian: one who believes that God destined some to be damned, and some to be saved, before and regardless of the Fall of man; sublapsarian: one who believes that the Fall was predetermined; infralapsarian: one who believes that the Fall was permitted by God.

labio-, as labiodental. lava, lapsus calami, etc.; Also labor, laboratory; belabor; collaborate, elaborate.

Gc (some partly imitative), slab; slaver, slobber, slop, slup, slur, sleep: slacken, as the mouth often does in snoring slumber. slip, slide, slim. slum, slumgullion, slummock, slump. label. lap, lapel, lappet. lip; OED gives 5 columns to lip whence also liplabor, lipless, lip-read, lipstick. Perhaps labarum. limp, lump, lumpfish. From lump, lunch.

slum has recently been euphemized into ghetto by those interested in displacing blame. A slum is created by its inhabitants; a ghetto is imposed by those outside. ghetto is perhaps from It borghetto: small town; some suggest it is from Venetian getto: foundry, as in Venice, where a Jewish ghetto was established in 1516; though opened by Napoleon in 1797, it still stands, the Campo del Ghetto Nuovo, with 10 Jewish families, Five synagogues, and a museum of Jewish art.

Here rests his head upon the lap of earth

A youth to fortune and to fame unknown;

Fair Science frowned not on his humble birth,

And Melancholy marked him for her own.

-Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country

Churchyard (1751), the most popular

English Poem

Oh Sleep! It is a blessed thing,

Beloved from pole to pole.

To Mary Queen the praise be given!

She sent the gentle sleep from heaven

That slid into my soul.

[a felicitous phrase, that slid into my soul]

-Coleridge, The Ancient Mariner (1798)[1]

Relating to lips. Though occasionally used in other senses (labia cerebri, edge of cerebral hemisphere overlapping the callosum; labia oris, lips or the mouth), more commonly refers to labia pudenda, the lips of the vulva, consisting of the labia majora (labia externa) or larger, more prominent outer lips and the labia minora (labia interna) or thinner inner lips.[16]

Labia Majora:  The labia majora (singular: labium majus) are two prominent longitudinal cutaneous folds that extend downward and backward from the mons pubis to the perineum. Together with the labia minora they form the labia of the vulva.

The labia majora are homologous to the male scrotum. Labia majora is the Latin plural for big (major) lips; the singular is labium majus. The Latin term labium/labia is used in anatomy for a number of usually paired parallel structures, but in English it is mostly applied to two pairs of parts of female external genitals (vulva)—labia majora and labia minora. Labia majora are commonly known as the outer lips, while labia minora (Latin for small lips), which run alongside between them, are referred to as the inner lips. Traditionally, to avoid confusion with other lip-like structures of the body, the labia of female genitals were termed by anatomists in Latin as labia majora (or minora) pudendi.

Embryologically, they develop from labioscrotal folds. It means that they develop in the female foetus from the same previously sexually undifferentiated anatomical structure as the scrotum, the sac of skin below the penis in males. The same process of sex differentiation concerns other male and female reproductive organs (see List of related male and female reproductive organs), with some organs of both sexes developing similar, yet not identical, structure and functions (like the gonads - male testicles and female ovaries, like male and female urethras, erectile corpus cavernosum penis and prepuce in the penis (foreskin) and the corpus cavernosum clitoridis in the clitoris and (clitoral hood) and their frenula). But other male and female sex organs become absolutely different and unique, like the internal female genitalia.

The scrotum and labia majora develop to have both similarities and crucial differences. Like the scrotum, labia majora after puberty may become of a darker color than the skin outside them, and, similarly, also grow pubic hair on their external surface (the female genitals on accompanying photos are shaved to show their structure clearer). But, during sexual differentiation of the foetus, labioscrotal folds in the males normally fuse longitudinally in the middle, forming a sack for male gonads (testicles) to descend into it from the pelvis, while in the females these folds normally do not fuse, forming the two labia majora and the pudendal cleft between them. Female gonads (ovaries) do not descend from the pelvis, thus the structure of labia majora may seem simpler (just fatty tissue covered with skin) and of lesser significance for functioning of the female body as a whole than the scrotum with testicles for males. The ridge or groove remaining of the fusion can be traced on the scrotum.

In some cases of intersex with disorders of sex development male/female genitalia may look ambiguous for either gender with phallus too small for a typical penis yet too big for a clitoris, with external urethral opening in an atypical location, and with labia/scrotum fully or partially fused but without descended gonads in them. Undescended testicles, though, may also occur in otherwise generally healthy male infants.

The labia majora constitute the lateral boundaries of the pudendal cleft, which contains the labia minora, interlabial sulci, clitoral hood, clitoral glans, frenulum clitoridis, the Hart’s Line, and the vulval vestibule, which contains the external openings of the urethra and the vagina. Each labium majus has two surfaces, an outer, pigmented and covered with strong, pubic hair; and an inner, smooth and beset with large sebaceous follicles. The labia majora are covered with squamous epithelium. Between the two there is a considerable quantity of areolar tissue, fat, and a tissue resembling the dartos tunic of the scrotum, besides vessels, nerves, and glands. The labia majora are thicker in front, and form the anterior labial commissure where they meet below the mons pubis. Posteriorly, they are not really joined, but appear to become lost in the neighboring integument, ending close to, and nearly parallel to, each other. Together with the connecting skin between them, they form another commissure the posterior labial commissure which is also the posterior boundary of the pudendum. The interval between the posterior commissure and the anus, from 2.5 to 3 cm in length, constitutes the perineum. The anterior region of the perineum is known as the urogenital triangle which separates it from the anal region. Between the labia majora and the inner thighs are the labiocrural folds. Between the labia majora and labia minora are the interlabial sulci. Labia majora atrophy after menopause.[11]

The labia majora and the labia minora cover the vulval vestibule. The outer pair of folds, divided by the pudendal cleft, are the labia majora (New Latin for larger lips). They contain and protect the other structures of