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Pash is perfect: Why the word for kissing needs a dictionary recall

Richard Glover Broadcaster and columnist October 11, 2025 — 4.30am Advertisement

Does anyone have a pash any more? I realise people kiss, but what do they call it? “Snog”, I’ve always thought, was disgusting, “smooch” is too cutesy and “tonsil hockey” is, of course, beyond the pale.

Pash – on the other hand – is perfect. It’s a shortening of “passion”, a term freighted with romance and heightened feelings but given an accessible form. You might be apprehensive about a full bout of passion but you could get away with a pash.

Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst in the famous upside-down pash scene in Spider-Man. Credit: Universal Sony Pictures

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