In the wee hours of this morning, I caught Mordecai saying farewell to a lady friend.
It must be said that Mordecai has paramours scattered across this planet. He’s rather the ladies’ man.
However, he’s incredibly fastidious with his manners. I witnessed a baisemain as he put his “friend” into a car.
Baisemain is a noun meaning a kiss on the hands. It comes from the French baiser for kiss and le main for hands.
An archaic derived term would be À belles baisemains, which means with a great submission.
Baisemain is an obsolete word that historically refers to the homage a vassal would give to the fief seigneur – by kissing his hand. Interesting how a feudal homage turns into an incredibly romantic gesture, isn’t it?
I would wager that most people don’t even know this historic context, though, trust me, Mordecai does. If there’s one thing the man values more than doing right by etiquette, it’s correct feudal morays.
