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Kissing the Hand

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Either kissing the sovereign’s hand at a public introduction, or kissing one’s own hand to bid farewell to a friend, and kissing the tips of our fingers and then moving the hand in a sort of salutation to imply great satisfaction at some beautiful object, thought, or other charm are remnants of pagan worship. If the idol was conveniently low enough, the devotee kissed its hand; if not, the devotees kissed their own hands and waved them to the image. God said He had in Israel seven thousand persons who had not bowed unto Baal, “every mouth which hath not kissed him.” (See Kiss.)

Many … whom the fame of this excellent vision had gathered thither, confounded by that matchless beauty, could but kiss the finger-tips of their right hands at sight of her, as in adoration to the goddess Venus herself.”—Pater: Marius the Epicurean, chap. v.

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Kiss the Dust
Kiss the Hare’s Foot (To)
Kiss the Mistress (To)
Kiss the Rod (To)
Kiss behind the Garden Gate (A)
Kiss given to a Poet
Kiss the Gunner’s Daughter (To)
Kiss the Place to make it Well
Kissing-comfit
Kissing-crust
Kissing the Hand
Kissing the Pope’s Toe
Kissing under the Mistletoe
Kist-vaen (The)
Kist of Whistles (A)
Kistnerappan
Kit. (Anglo-Saxon, kette, a cist or box [of tools].)
Kit
Kit-cat Club
Kit Cats
Kit’s Coty House