skinship

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Japanese スキンシップ (sukinshippu), equivalent to (deprecated template usage) [etyl] English skin +‎ -ship, designed to rhyme with kinship, and a more intimate link than friendship.

Noun

skinship (uncountable)

1. bonding through physical contact
   • 1994, Nicole Landry Sault, Many Mirrors: Body Image and Social Relations‎^[1], Rutgers University Press, →ISBN, page 311:

     In Mexico, interdependence among people in emphasized and expressed through cosleeping and "skinship." … A similar type of "skinship" also exists throughout Mexico—all one had to do is look at the way people walk or sit together. … women are always patting touching ...

   • 2015, LT Wolf, The World King (fiction), →ISBN:

     However, there were times that folks needed that skinship to feel hearten'd and Dan often felt when others had that need.

Translations

bonding through physical contact

• Japanese: スキンシップ (ja) (sukinshippu)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Korean: 스킨십 (seukinsip)

Usage notes

This word is mainly in use in Japan and South Korea and is rarely or never used by native English speakers.

Anagrams

• kinships