canoodle

Etymology

Origin unknown; compare Swedish knulla (“to fuck”), Norwegian Bokmål knulle (“to fuck”), German knuddeln (“to cuddle”). The German word comes from Knoten (“knot”), so it may be that "close contact" is the root concept. Folk etymology cites the use of two-person canoes as an activity to escape the presence of a chaperon by couples during Victorian and Edwardian times, and the activities such privacy allowed. Supposedly, a "canoe" and "paddle" were used to sail away from the chaperone.

verb

1. To caress, pet, feel up, or make love.
   He’s got a big smile on his face; who’s he been canoodling recently?
   Oh, yes! I felt I ought to know. They told me he had food the doctors forbade, and of the open window. Gerald Arbuthnot sat with her in the library all the time Jim was upstairs dying and they canoodled together on the sofa in front of the fire. 1915, Frank Danby (pseudonym; Julia Frankau), “The Arbuthnot Case”, in The Story Behind the Verdict
   As Norah Jones coos sweet nothings on the soundtrack, the happy couple—played by Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler—canoodle through a Manhattan montage, making pasta for two, swimming through a pile of autumn leaves, and horsing around at a fruit stand. 26 June 2014, A. A. Dowd, “Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler Spoof Rom-com Clichés in They Came Together”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2017-12-07
   You may have been a classy, demure teenager, but I was a pragmatist, a hedge-better. And it was often hedges in which I canoodled. 2022-08-07, Jessica Fostekew, “‘I canoodled in hedges and fumbled in recycling bins as a teenager – and I don’t regret a thing’”, in The Guardian
2. To cajole or persuade.
   He canoodled my husband into believin' that the end of the world was comin' and it was his duty to give all his property away. 1900, Charles Felton Pidgin, Quincy Adams Sawyer and Mason's Corner Folks - A Picture of New England Home Life

noun

1. A cuddle, hug, or caress