Language is steeped in metaphors of touch. We call our emotions feelings, and we care most deeply when something "touches" us. Problems can be thorny, ticklish, sticky, or need to be handled with kid gloves. Touchy people, especially if they're coarse, really get on our nerves. Noli me tangere, legal Latin for "don't meddle or interfere," translates literally as "Don't touch me," and it was what Christ said to Mary Magdalen after the Resurrection.
—Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses

Posted on July 25, 2001 at 12:35 PM

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