n.
Touching or
fingering. Usually means any
fingertip contact with an everyday item (a
keyboard, tools, etc.).
Contrectation may also refer more specifically to the contact during
foreplay. In a more unpleasant sexual sense it may mean any
caress given in a
furtive or unwelcome manner.
This is also used as a legal term, signifying the ability to be
handled and subsequently removed. Contrectation is a prerequisite for
larceny. If a piece of
property is incapable of contrectation (such as a house, a swimming pool, a plot of land), there can have been no larceny of the item.
Latin root:
contrectare. To touch, to
dwell on, or, interestingly, to
defile.
Sources:
David Grambs' The Endangered English Dictionary
http://www.jengler.com/words.html
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:www.alaska.net/~winter/bouvier1856_contract.html+contrectation&hl=en
http://www.sexualrecords.com/sexterm.html