The Traveller's Lexicon: cafuné

Cafuné (Brazilian Portuguese; roughly “kah-foo-NEH”) is the act of running your fingers gently through someone's hair. It is commonly described as a word without a neat single-word translation in English.

It is a useful word for a month about travelling with someone, and a reminder that small gestures often outlast large itineraries. Like many such words, it is best treated as a nice piece of vocabulary rather than a symbol of a whole culture.