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The noun kissogram (also kissagram) is composed of:
– the word kiss, used as a noun or as a verb;
– the connective vowel -o- (also -a-);
– the suffix -gram in the noun telegram.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED – current online edition), the noun kissogram (also kissagram) designates:
A novelty telegram or greetings message sent through a commercial agency, which is delivered (usually by a provocatively-dressed young woman) with a kiss, especially to amuse or embarrass the recipient.
However, the earliest occurrences of the noun kissogram (also kissagram) that the OED has recorded date from the early 1980s only—whereas the earliest that I have found date from the early 1900s and had a variety of meanings; in particular:
– the noun kissogram designated a postcard on which the sender could leave the imprint of a kiss—cf., below, quotation 6 from The Hastings Daily Tribune of 28th September 1906;
– the noun kissogram (also kissagram) designated a brief statement about kissing—cf., below, quotation 8 from The Battle Creek Enquirer of 22nd October 1907 and quotation 9 from the Franklin Favorite of 8th April 1915.
These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the noun kissogram (also kissagram) that I have found:
1-: From The Morning Sun (Chanute, Kansas, USA) of Thursday 15th February 1900 [page 2, column 2]—this isolated early occurrence of the noun kissagram, of unclear meaning, perhaps simply designates a kiss:
Some writer has discovered that the real St. Valentine was a pagan god, and his name was Pan, and the Roman youth bowed down and worshiped him long before the year one. Just when Cupid fell in with Pan is not stated, but it can be supposed they must have met in some sunny clime on the 14th of February, among the evergreen trees, and noticed what a happy time the birds were having, choosing mates for the season. It can be supposed also, as a cause for this mysterious partnership, that an alliance was formed, and Pan turned Cupid into an ivisible [sic] messenger of delight, but tipped many of his arrow points with acid, and together they have roamed the world, spreading the gospel of love and shooting the acid arrows. But it is a dreamy yarn, best told in whispers, and many times best not told at all. There are many ways to spin this yarn if one is determined on it. It may be in the language of the eyes, or by the magnetic current in the hand, but all communications are in cipher without a key, until confirmed by a kissagram from Liptown. The mission of St. Valentine and Cupid, has been to keep the youthful emotions in an uncertain state of intensity. It seems quite reasonable that the mysterious valentine should originate with some treacherous old pagan deity like the imposter Pan, and with the aid of the sly and vicious Cupid, the valentine business has become quite a flourishing industry.
2-: From the following advertisement, published in the Accrington Observer & Times (Accrington, Lancashire, England) of Saturday 24th February 1906 [page 6, column 6]:
Latest in Postcards.
KISSOGRAMS. Kissing by Post.
One Penny Each.
Constantines’,
Wholesale Stationers,
26A, Bank Street, Accrington.
3-: From the following advertisement, published in The Bucks Examiner (Chesham, Buckinghamshire, England) of Friday 9th March 1906 [page 1, column 2]:
SMITH BROS.,
STATIONERS and BOOKSELLERS,
Market Sq., and Station Rd., Chesham.
Stationery
CHEAP NOTEPAPERS & ENVELOPES.
PIE DISH FRILLS & DISH PAPERS.
NOVELTIES IN PICTURE POST CARDS,
’PON MY SOLE, KISSOGRAMS, etc.
4-: From The Luton Reporter (Luton, Bedfordshire, England) of Friday 18th May 1906 [page 7, column 3]:
Kisses by Post—Kissograms.—We understand that these are the very latest in Post Cards, and that they can be obtained only from E. Deacon and Sons, Wellington-street and George-street, Luton. [Advt.
5-: From the following advertisement, published in The Daily Standard (St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada) of Wednesday 26th September 1906 [page 8, column 5]:
Post Card Novelties
Kissogram Cards, Magic Photographs, Fan View Cards, Multiple View Cards, Puzzle Post Cards, Bird and Butterfly Cards, New Views of the city. Plenty of Leather Cards at 5c.
A. L. JACKSON.
JEWELER.
ISSUER OF MARRIAGE LICENSES.
59, Geneva Street.
6-: From The Hastings Daily Tribune (Hastings, Nebraska, USA) of Friday 28th September 1906 [page 3, column 3]:
There is such a steady increase in the souvenir postal card business that the postoffice department is having a difficult time in handling the mail of that nature. The latest thing to reach this city in the souvenir postal card line is the “kissogram.” On one end of the card is the photograph of a lady with large rosy lips. On the other is a blank space for the sender to impress a real kiss. The print is made by moistening the lips, touching them to the rosy lips of the picture and then kissing the blank space on the card.
7-: From the New-York Tribune (New York City, New York, USA) of Saturday 29th September 1906 [page 8, column 1]:
From England comes the announcement of something new in postal cards. It is called the “kissogram” card, on which “by a simple process” the kisses of actresses and other celebrities are printed, “together with the kisser’s autograph.” Whether the kiss and the autograph are printed by the same process we are not informed.
8-: From News in Brief, published in The Battle Creek Enquirer (Battle Creek, Michigan, USA) of Tuesday 22nd October 1907 [page 8, column 5]:
Kissogram.
“Is kissing a necessity or a luxury?” asks Col Harvey in the North American Review. Nobody but a bachelor or an old maid can seriously ask such a foolish question. The answer is: Yes.
9-: From an interview of the U.S. physician and chemist Harvey Washington Wiley (1844-1930), dated Chicago, Illinois, Monday 29th March 1915, published in the Franklin Favorite (Franklin, Kentucky, USA) of Thursday 8th April 1915 [page 3, column 1]:
“There is more good than evil in kissing.” Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, pure food authority and mouth hygiene expert, came to the defense of safe and sane osculation […].
[…] These were some of the “kissagrams” uttered by Dr. Wiley in an interview given while he was resting at the Great Northern Hotel.
“Babies should be kissed, but not kissed on the mouth.
“If there is danger in kissing, nobody ever threatened me.
“Girls must have good teeth if they want to be kissable.
“[&c.]”
—Note: On the same subject (i.e., the interview of Harvey Washington Wiley), The Daily Signal (Crowley, Louisiana, USA) of Thursday 8th April 1915 [page 3, column 2] used the form kissograms (with connective -o-).
10-: From Do You Kiss Yourself in Your Mirror?, by Alice A. Harrison, published in the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine (San Francisco, California, USA) of Sunday 14th November 1915 [page 1, column 1]:
A carbon copy […] of a kiss can be obtained, and the day may come when the lovelorn swain will implore the lady of his choice for just one little kissogram. This he could carry in his vest pocket, over the heart, and use in the weary hours between embraces to reassure himself that two lips are still calling him.
It might prove a great relief to many a baby, “fretted by sallies of his mother’s kisses,” if she and her associates would make up their minds to be satisfied with his kissogram. There would be more cause for contentment and less cause for wails in his early years.
To those who object to kissing because of its unhygienic tendencies, one could suggest an exchange of kiss-prints. They would no doubt find it safer, if less thrilling to say: “Darling, I adore you! Permit me to present you with my “kissogram,” than to risk the exchange of a million rampant bacteria in practicing the ancient art.
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