This may be when the “x” first became associated with the kiss: It was customary to close books with a kiss, and oaths of fealty to kings were sealed with a kiss. “Symbols have a way of jumping from ...

The family of a Philadelphia girl who was declared tumor-free three years after receiving a kiss from the pope has donated $50,000 to the hospital that helped save her.

“The kiss became ‘If I kiss that man, then this is the man I love and want,’” says Danesi. “So much was packed into that symbol of a kiss. … It has become a kind of collective memory.