– (Doug Lira/Strange World)
1) PEACE AND LOVE
With that meaning, it appeared in the 1960s, adopted by hippies in US protests. The gesture represented the victory of peace over the Vietnam War. But making a V with your hands is not an American invention. “The spelling of the word ‘victory’ begins with that letter in most languages with the Latin alphabet, and the sign was already made to commemorate conquests in wars”, says Oscar Cesarotto, doctor in communication and semiotics and professor at PUC-SP. British statesman Winston Churchill helped spread the signal, as he used to do so in World War II after victories over German forces.
2) V WITH THE BACK OF THE HAND
– (Doug Lira/Strange World)
With the back of the hand turned, the V is an insult in England: English archers used it to show they were still a threat at the Battle of Agincourt
3) MIDDLE FINGER
– (Doug Lira/Strange World)
The middle finger represents the erect penis. Showing the genitalia as an offense is something old and common among different peoples, but the origin of the representation with the hand is uncertain. There are more than 2,000-year-old Greek writings that document the gesture as an insult.
4) MEDITATION
– (Doug Lira/Strange World)
Bringing the tip of the index and thumb together, while the other fingers are stretched, is one of the gestures used in meditation. It dates back over 4,000 years BC and symbolizes a closed energy current that keeps circulating through the body without dissipating.
5) CONTINENCE
– (Doug Lira/Strange World)
The military salute would have appeared at the end of the Middle Ages, when knights had to raise the armor’s helmet visor to identify themselves. The gesture was also a sign of peace, because, with the hand on the helmet, the fighter could not use the sword.
6) HORNS
– (Doug Lira/Strange World)
Ronnie James Dio, who took over the vocals of Black Sabbath in 1979, did the gored hand at shows. He says he inherited the gesture from his grandmother, who used it to ward off the evil eye. Perhaps it was to differentiate himself from Ozzy Osbourne, the previous vocalist, who used the V sign.
7) HORNS VERSION 2
– (Doug Lira/Strange World)
What the hell, the horn sign with the thumb sticking out means nothing more than “I love you” in North American Sign Language, used by the deaf and created around the year 1817. The expression is represented by the letters ILY, from “I love you”, in English
8) FIGA
– (Doug Lira/Strange World)
This figa represents the sexual act. It would have appeared among the Romans and Etruscans, as a symbol of orgies, and was used to ward off sterility. In Italian, “fico” means vagina. Another strand argues that the sign emerged in Africa and that the thumb represents the male member.
9) FIGA VERSION 2
– (Doug Lira/Strange World)
This figa probably appeared in Europe between the 1st and 4th centuries. It would be an attempt to make the sign of the cross in secret at the time of the persecution of Christians. Over time, it became a way of evoking protection. Making the sign when lying would be related: thus, God would not punish the liar
10) PRAY
– (Doug Lira/Strange World)
At the time of the Roman conquests, those defeated in fights had their hands tied and were coerced into converting to Christianity before the sword pointed downwards, which referred to the cross. The united palms spread among the faithful and the gesture became a sign of humility.
11) STOP
– (Doug Lira/Strange World)
The exact origin of extending the palm as a “stop” signal is not known. “It’s something almost instinctive, used to stop someone coming towards us”, says Professor Oscar Cesarotto. In Greece, the sign was an offense, as it referred to rubbing dirt in the face of enemies.
12) JEWELRY
– (Doug Lira/Strange World)
A possible origin of the thumbs up is that, in the Roman Empire, the fate of gladiators in the arenas was determined by the emperor’s gesture. The thumbs up was a sign of death. Already in the 2nd World War, it was a North American signal for its pilots to take off
13) OK
– (Doug Lira/Strange World)
One theory says that the signal was used in the American Civil War for missions that returned without casualties, that is, with “0 killed” (zero dead). The gesture may also have derived from the expression «oll korrekt» («all right»), in 1830
14) MONEY
– (Doug Lira/Strange World)
Rubbing the index and thumb to talk about money would have its origin in the invention of the currency note, printed on paper around the 17th century in Europe. Before, there were only metallic coins. The gesture was made by merchants to count the bufunfa
15) HANG LOOSE
– (Doug Lira/Strange World)
The “hang loose” would have appeared in Hawaii. A Honolulu fisherman reportedly lost his three middle fingers in an accident. With that, his wave was just thumb and pinky. Surfers adopted the gesture and used it to indicate that everything was fine at sea.
CONSULTANCY Oscar Cesarotto, doctor in communication and semiotics and professor at PUC-SP, and Ana Cristina Carvalho Pereira, professor at the School of Fine Arts at UFMG; SOURCES books Seditionsby Oscar Cesarotto, and Gestures, Their Origin and Distribution (various authors); BBC websites, https://www.gesturestudies.com and https://www.benjamins.com