Basium, basii (n.) – kiss
According to the online Lewis & Short dictionary, basium is “to throw kisses of the hand.” In terms of the frequency, it is the 4710th most popular word. It is rarely used but mostly used in poetic settings; for example, the word most frequently appears in Catullus’s poems rather than the plays of Plautus. Catullus, in particular, employed basium in his romantic poems, thereby using it to describe kisses.
The Etymological Dictionary of Latin explains one of the possible origins of the word as Celtic because Catullus, who first used the word in his poems, was from Verona. Another explanation is that basium is more of a romantic terminology of ōsculum, which means “little mouth.” Bāsiāre is a derivation of basium and is used in Catullus’s poems as well.
Quotation 1: Catullus 5.7, 5.13
dā mī bāsia mīlle, deinde centum,
cum tantum sciat esse bāsiōrum.
Quotation: Cacullus 7.1, 7.9
Quaeris, quot mihi bāsiātiōnēs
tam tē bāsia multa bāsiāre
References:
“Basium.” Logeion.uchicago.edu. Date of access 22 Mar. 2020, https://logeion.uchicago.edu/basium
Vaan, Michiel Arnoud Cor de. Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the Other Italic Languages. Leiden ; Brill, 2008. Print.
Translation: Catullus 5, https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Catullus_5
Translation: Catullus 7, https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Catullus_7
Image: https://www.seeker.com/kissings-long-history-a-timeline-1767196852.html