the.com/hug
a full-body negotiation that says everything words keep botching.
means To hold someone close in your arms, usually as a sign of affection, comfort, or greeting.
from A young word, surfacing in English in the late 1500s with no clear paper trail behind it. The leading guess links it to Old Norse 'hugga,' meaning to comfort or console — the same warm impulse, just older and colder, carried south by Norse speakers. But the connection is plausible rather than proven, so think of it as a likely cousin rather than a confirmed parent.
- chemical
- Releases oxytocin, the brain's bonding hormone
- heart effect
- Lowers blood pressure and slows heart rate
- ideal length
- Twenty seconds for the real chemical payoff
- immune boost
- Hugged people catch fewer colds, studies suggest
- awkward physics
- Both heads dodge the same direction, every time
world record hug chain — 2,280 people hugging in a chain in argentina, 2009
longest hug — guinness record of 58 hours 35 minutes by kristin keery and cory cummings in 2010
free hugs campaign — juan mann started holding signs in sydney in 2004, became a global movement