After centuries without an official word for the sloppy Gallic export "to french kiss", a verb has finally been given its rightful place in the French dictionary.
"Galocher", to kiss with tongues, is among the latest additions to the Petit Robert 2014 edition, which went on sale on Thursday.
It may surprise many that France, a country famed for its amorous exploits, is only just embracing the popular pastime. Yet Laurence Laporte of the Robert publishing house said the word was merely the evolution of language.
"The French have always had many expressions to describe it, such as '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 to the English-speaking world by soldiers returning after the first world war. At the time, the French had a reputation for more adventurous sexual practices.
Laporte said "galocher" was a slang term that had been around for a while "but only now is it being officially recognised 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.
Laporte added a caveat about the power of language. The lack of a specific term "never stopped us from doing it," she said.
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