What is "osculate"

Osculate \Os"cu*late\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Osculated; p. pr. & vb. n. Osculating.] [L. osculatus, p. p. of osculari to kiss, fr. osculum a little mouth, a kiss, dim. of os mouth. See Oral, and cf. Oscillate.]

1. To kiss.

2. (Geom.) To touch closely, so as to have a common curvature at the point of contact. See Osculation, 2.

Osculate \Os"cu*late\, v. i.

1. To kiss one another; to kiss.

2. (Geom.) To touch closely. See Osculation, 2.

3. (Biol.) To have characters in common with two genera or families, so as to form a connecting link between them; to interosculate. See Osculant.

"to kiss," 1650s, from Latin osculatus, past participle of osculari "to kiss," from osculum "a kiss; pretty mouth, sweet mouth," literally "little mouth," diminutive of os "mouth" (see oral). Related: Osculated; osculating.

vb. 1 (context transitive English) To kiss someone or something. 2 (context mathematics English) To touch so as to have a common tangent at the point of contact. 3 (context intransitive English) To make contact. 4 (context Vedic arithmetic English) To perform osculation.

1. v. be intermediate between two taxonomic groups; "These species osculate"

2. have at least three points in common with; "one curve osculates the other"; "these two surfaces osculate"

3. touch with the lips or press the lips (against someone's mouth or other body part) as an expression of love, greeting, etc.; "The newly married couple kissed"; "She kissed her grandfather on the forehead when she entered the room" [syn: kiss, buss]

In mathematics, osculate, meaning to touch (from the Latin osculum meaning kiss), may refer to:

• osculant, an invariant of hypersurfaces.
• osculating circle
• osculating curve
• osculating plane
• osculating orbit

The obsolete Quinarian system of biological classification attempted to group creatures into circles which could touch or overlap with adjacent circles, a phenomenon called 'osculation'.