Hickey

Last updated
Hickey
Other namesKiss mark, love bite, bug bite, love mark
Love bite.jpg
Hickeys on the neck
Pronunciation
Specialty Dermatology
Duration3–14 days
Causessuction on skin

A hickey, often referred to as a love bite in British English and specialised use, is a bruise or bruise-like mark caused by biting or sucking the skin of a person, usually on their neck, arm, or earlobe.[ citation needed ] While biting may be part of giving a hickey, sucking is sufficient to burst small superficial blood vessels under the skin to produce bruising. A hickey is sometimes used to mark someone as being the target of a partner's romantic affection or as belonging to them. Many therapists see hickeys as a form of light sadomasochism. [1]

Contents

History

In a looser definition, the fourth-century Hindu text Kama Sutra contains references to biting with relation to kissing. [2] "Love bite" as a term is first attested in 1749 in John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure . [3] The later term 'hickey', originally used in American English and still predominantly in that dialect, is of unclear etymology. [4] Some sources suggests that it derives from the earlier meaning of "pimple, skin lesion" (c. 1915), itself perhaps a sense extension of "small gadget, device; any unspecified object" (1909). [5]

References

  1. ↑ Janus, Sam; Janus, Cynthia L. (1993). The Janus Report on Sexual Behavior. New York: Wiley. p. 110. ISBN   978-0-471-52540-0.
  2. ↑ Vatsyayana (1883). "Part II, Chapter V: On Biting". Kama Sutra. Translated by Burton, Richard Francis. p. 46.
  3. ↑ "love bite" . Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/OED/38907269100.(Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  4. ↑ "hickey" . Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press.(Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  5. ↑ Harper, Douglas. "hickie". Online Etymology Dictionary . Retrieved 2025-07-02.
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