Hickey
Mark on the skin made by sucking or biting
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A hickey, also known as love bite, is a bruise or bruise-like, dark red or purple mark caused by sucking or biting the skin of a person, usually their neck.[1] While biting may be part of giving a hickey, sucking is sufficient to burst small superficial blood vessels under the skin to produce bruising. A hickey is sometimes used to mark someone as being the target of a partner's romantic affection or as belonging to them. While mostly considered safe, there have been some reports of serious medical complications as a result of receiving hickeys, such as strokes, vascular[2] or nerve damage.[3]
| Hickey | |
|---|---|
| Other names | Kiss mark, love bite, bug bite, love mark |
| |
| Hickeys on the neck | |
| Pronunciation | |
| Specialty | Dermatology |
| Duration | 3–14 days |
| Causes | Suction on skin |
History
In a looser definition, the fourth-century Hindu text Kama Sutra contains references to biting with relation to kissing.[4]
As a term, "Love bite" is first attested in 1749 in John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure.[5] The later term 'hickey', originally used in American English and still predominantly in that dialect, is of unclear etymology.[6] Some sources suggests that it derives from the earlier meaning of "pimple, skin lesion" (c. 1915), itself perhaps a sense extension of "small gadget, device; any unspecified object" (1909).[7]
