Rob Lammle
Give Me a Sign: The Stories Behind 5 Hand Gestures
by Rob Lammle - April 16, 2010 - 1:31 PM

So much can be said with a hand gesture. Here are the stories behind gestures you might use every day, and some you might not.

1. The Vulcan Salute

We all know it, even if we can’t all do it. The Vulcan Salute, made famous by Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock on the original Star Trek, has become a cultural icon recognized even by those who have never been to a sci-fi convention. And while the gesture is meant to be from another planet, its inspiration is anything but alien.

When Nimoy was a child, he witnessed a Jewish ritual called the “kohane blessing,” which uses a hand sign meant to resemble the Hebrew letter “shin,” which symbolizes the Hebrew word for “Shaddai,” meaning “Almighty (God).” (Got that?) It’s made by splitting the hand down the middle—holding the index and middle fingers together, the ring and pinky fingers together—and then the thumb pressed firmly against the side of the hand. The Orthodox priest giving the blessing holds both hands out in front of him in these strange configurations, palms down. When Nimoy was developing a greeting to be used between Vulcans, he remembered the sign and adapted it, using only one hand held up, and pulling his thumb away from the rest of the hand.

Nimoy had no problem doing the salute, but not all Trek actors have been so lucky. William Shatner had to have his fingers tied together with fishing line whenever Captain Kirk needed to use the sign. Even the latest pointy-eared Vulcan, actor Zachary Quinto, who played a younger Mr. Spock in the recent blockbuster film, had to have his fingers stuck together with the skin-safe superglue used by hospitals as a replacement for traditional stitches.

2. The Shaka Sign

Folding your three middle fingers down while holding out your thumb and pinky, then twisting your hand around, is a strange gesture to say the least. But if you visit Hawaii, you’re likely to see it a lot. The gesture, called The Shaka Sign, can be interpreted as “Hello,” “Goodbye,” “Have a nice day,” “Take it easy,” “Good luck,” or, the most popular definition, “Hang loose.” Unfortunately, the sign’s history is a bit vague.

The oldest origin story goes back to the days when Spanish sailors first landed on the Hawaiian Islands. Unable to speak the native tongue, but trying to be friendly, the Spaniards offered to share a drink by mimicking a bottle with their hand with the gesture and tilting back their head. This became such a common greeting that the natives simply believed that’s how the Spanish said hello, so they started using the sign whenever the two groups encountered one another.

Another theory, from the mid-20th Century, claims the sign was inspired by the wave of a beloved local named Hamana Kalili, who’d lost the middle fingers on one hand. There are multiple theories as to how he lost his fingers: there was a shark attack, they were blown off while using dynamite to catch fish, or perhaps the digits were lost in an accident while working on a sugar plantation. But no one knows for sure anymore.

As if the origin of the gesture isn’t mysterious enough, the word Shaka isn’t even Hawaiian. However, most people agree the name goes back to a local used car salesman, Lippy Espinda, who would throw up the sign at the end of popular TV commercials during the 1960s and 70s, and say, “Shacka, brah!” (“Shocker, bro!”)

During his Inauguration Parade, Barack Obama threw the Shaka Sign to greet Honolulu’s Punahou School marching band.

3. The Corna

Hand gestures can have multiple meanings. Perhaps one of the best examples of this is the “hand horn,” also known as the “corna,” where only the pinky and the index finger point up while the other fingers are held in the palm under the thumb.

If you’re in Italy or Spain and you flash this sign towards a man, you might get beaten up. In this culture, the symbol represents the horns of one of nature’s most virile animals, the bull. The bull in this case is usually meant to symbolize the guy sleeping with the man’s wife behind his back. The sign can also be interpreted with the cuckold as the bull, who has been symbolically castrated by his wife. Either way it’s bound to make him see red.

However, turn your palm down and point the extended fingers at someone who doesn’t like you, and you’re simply guarding yourself from the Evil Eye. In ancient times, bulls were often seen as protective deities, so turning the bull’s horns against an enemy was a way of keeping the curse at bay.

On a similar note, in South America, if you have the horn sign held up and twist it back and forth, it’s known as “lagarto” or Lizard Gesture. Similar to the old superstition “Knock on wood,” it’s thought that by doing this you can protect yourself from any bad mojo that might occur after someone utters the taboo word “culebra,” or snake.

Of course the corna is also used by fans of the University of Texas, where they call it the “Hook ‘Em Horns.” Created in 1955 by student Harley Clark, the sign represents the school’s mascot, a Texas longhorn steer named Bevo, and his impressive 72” horns. Being a Texas native former Governor of Texas, though not a UT alumni, President George W. Bush and his family were known for flashing the Hook ‘Em Horns during appearances in the Lone Star State.

But there’s another group of fans who use the corna, too – fans of heavy metal music. The gesture in metal goes back to occultist band Coven, a group heavily inspired by counter culture figures like renowned Satanist Anton LaVey, who used the corna as a sign of the Devil. However, it was Ronnie James Dio, lead singer for Black Sabbath in the late-1970s, that really made the sign take hold in the genre. He borrowed the gesture from his superstitious Italian grandmother who used it to ward off evil. He felt the sign’s pagan origins fit perfectly with the subject matter of the band’s music.

4. The Pledge of Allegiance

Chances are, when you were saying the Pledge of Allegiance in elementary school, you placed your hand over your heart in a sign of adoration for Old Glory. But if you were in school before World War II, you probably used an entirely different gesture to address the flag—the Bellamy Salute.

The editor of a children’s publication called The Youth’s Companion created the unofficial salute in 1892 shortly after the Pledge was written, and named it after the author, Francis Bellamy. For the first three words of the Pledge (“I pledge allegiance”), the right hand was held at the brow in a military salute. Then, as the reciter got to the phrase, “to my flag” (the original words), the arm was extended up and out, pointing towards the flag, fingers together, with the palm facing up in a gesture of presentation. This pose was held while the rest of the Pledge was recited.

However, as the years went by, parts of the Bellamy Salute fell out of use, while others evolved. First, the military salute was abandoned, leaving only the straight arm presentation of the flag. But then the palm went from facing up, to sideways, and by the 1940s, it faced down. This last version became a problem as America entered World War II, because it so closely resembled the stiff-armed salute of dictators Mussolini and Hitler. The hand over the heart gesture was suggested as a viable alternative and President Franklin Roosevelt signed it into law in 1942 as part of the Flag Code, making it the official gesture for the Pledge of Allegiance we all know today.

5. The High Five

The roots of the high five go back to the Jazz Era of the early 20th Century. Black musicians of the time created numerous ways to say hello, such as “giving some skin,” “giving five,” and later a series of complicated, interconnected handshake gestures called a “dap.” Then, in the late-1970s, college and professional basketball players began raising their arms above their heads and slapping the palms of their hands together, in what would later be dubbed the “high five.”

While no one can say for sure where the high five came from, some believe the first one was exchanged between Glenn Burke and Dusty Baker, baseball players for the L.A. Dodgers, after a home run in 1977. But there is one man who claims he knows the origin of the high five, because he says he’s the guy who invented it.

Lamont Sleets, Jr. says he adopted the high five from a salute his father exchanged with old Army buddies from the 5th Infantry regiment, nicknamed “The Five.” To say hello, the men would stick their hand straight up in the air, spread their fingers wide, and call out “Five!” Anytime he saw the Five greeting, Sleets Jr. would say “Hi, Five!” to the visiting veteran and slapped the upraised hand with his own. Sleets Jr. went on to become one of the top basketball players at Murray State University in the late-1970s and he brought his odd salutation with him. It became popular with his teammates, and as the team traveled the country to play other schools, Sleets says the gesture caught on.

To celebrate this infamous hand gesture, students at the University of Virginia created “National High Five Day,” which takes place on the third Thursday in April (yesterday).
* * * * * *
Have a favorite fun hand gesture we didn’t mention? Is there one you’ve always wondered where it came from? Tell us about it in the comments below!

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Comments (44)

  1. I was wondering where the fist bump came from. Does anyone know?

    posted by Ernesto on 4-16-2010 at 1:54 pm

  2. The High Five actually originated in the Kongo nation of Africa. It can be traced through art dating back hundreds of years.

    posted by Alex on 4-16-2010 at 1:56 pm

  3. WOAAAH!! I didn’t even know that last night as my boyfriend & I kicked booty in foosball & congratulated each other with high fives that we were actually celebrating National High Five day! What a good feeling! :)

    posted by Drina on 4-16-2010 at 2:00 pm

  4. Ernesto:
    I did some research on the fist bump (I was shooting for an Obama trifecta!) and there’s not much out there on the history.

    Some say it just evolved from people giving each other “five.” Others believe it spawns from boxers greeting each other in the ring. Some attribute it to the Black Power movement in the 1960s/70s. Others think it came from the Wonder Twins on Superfriends! (I doubt that one…) But, as with most gesture origins, there’s nothing definitive.

    posted by SpaceMonkeyX on 4-16-2010 at 2:07 pm

  5. so why is that middle finger a bad thing?

    posted by Wayne on 4-16-2010 at 2:12 pm

  6. Small note. Native is debatable as Bush was not born in Texas. He was born in Connecticut. We give points (and bumper stickers) for getting here as fast as you can.

    posted by Angela on 4-16-2010 at 2:15 pm

  7. I am seriously disappointed that I did not know about National High Five Day yesterday. I would have celebrated all day! Well better late than never. AM I RIGHT? HIGH FIVE!

    posted by soandso on 4-16-2010 at 3:13 pm

  8. *gives soandso a high five*

    posted by DYMongoose on 4-16-2010 at 4:20 pm

  9. I agree with you soandso!!!!

    Thanks for telling us a day late! I would have high-fived my rear off!!!

    posted by Jay on 4-16-2010 at 4:22 pm

  10. The meaning of the shaka is all you mentioned plus more. In explaining it’s meaning to us one day, a local tour guide went through the meanings you gave then added this gem “For all you tourists used to the frenzy on the mainland it’s flashed at you to mean ‘Slow down! You’re on an island, you not going nowhere, chillax.’”

    posted by Prism on 4-16-2010 at 4:47 pm

  11. Great piece! Just a word of advice: I am Brazilian and have lived and travelled in different parts of South America – I’ve never witnessed the “Lagarto” gesture or even heard about it. Hand gestures are wonderful cultural peculiarities and should be treated as such. Just as you are specific when reffering to countries in Europe and North America, it would nice (if not plain fair) for you to do the same with South America – please be more specific or if that isn’t just write “parts of South America”.

    posted by Sil on 4-16-2010 at 5:15 pm

  12. Interesting that “The shaka” looks like the sign for “play” in American Sign Language.

    posted by TheBear on 4-16-2010 at 5:57 pm

  13. Ya’ll do know that during the annual TU-OU football game that as the Longhorn fans and the Sooner fans pass one another on the street (or other places) that the Longhorn fans do indeed give the sign of old Bevo and shout out, “Hook’em horns!”…to which the Sooners reply, “F—’em Sooners!”

    posted by M. Forrest on 4-16-2010 at 6:23 pm

  14. I read somewhere that every gesture that it is possible to make with the hand and arm is obscene somewhere in the world. Somehow I find that comforting.

    posted by Jess on 4-16-2010 at 6:27 pm

  15. what about the peace sign? is it really just a hippie thing xD

    posted by cassy on 4-16-2010 at 9:54 pm

  16. as per the bellamy salute- the story goes that the original name this salute is the “roman salute”, as per regarding an official in ancient rome with this energetic gesture. francis bellamy lived in rome, NY, and adopted the gesture thanks to that parallel. there is also an elementary school named after him still in operation in rome.

    posted by greg on 4-16-2010 at 11:14 pm

  17. I’m not convinced about the high five’s recent origins. I’ve seen it used in old slapstick comedies, family films and photos from the sixties, and old television shows made well before the ’70′s. It might not have been as popular or maybe wasn’t called a high five, but it is probably not only 40+ years old.

    posted by Brandy on 4-17-2010 at 12:43 am

  18. two of my favorites are the hand hug – when you hold your hand fingers together against someone elses and wrap your thumb around each others hand and saying hand hug. or the snail – when someone wants to bump your fist, you shout snail, slide your fist under theres and hold up a piece sign, so your hands look like a snail.

    posted by Nick on 4-17-2010 at 1:00 am

  19. @ wayne
    I was told by my AP European History teacher that the middle finger originates way back to the hundred years’ war between England and France. One of the English’s great technological advantages was the longbow which could shoot quick and far. Whenever an Englishman was taken prisoner the French would cut off his middle finger so that he could not use a longbow, which were plucked with the middle finger. So, when the English were winning in battle they flashed the middle finger as sort of an “up yours” because they still had their middle fingers.

    If I am misinformed feel free to correct me.

    I am also curious about the peace sign which I guess has hippie origins. But wonder about the origin if you flip around the peace sign so that the back of your hand is facing out, in England, it is similar meaning as the middle finger. I remember reading about one of our presidents doing it while overseas in England as a nice gesture of peace but caused a bit of shock because it is so close in meaning to something else.

    posted by Melissa on 4-17-2010 at 2:25 am

  20. The bellamy salute was not based on the “roman salute” myth (this is a response to a posted comment). There was no such official gesture/salute in ancient rome and Bellamy never said such a thing as the concept/myth did not even exist when Bellamy created the Pledge of Allegiance. However the Roman salute myth might have evolved from the fact that francis bellamy lived in rome, NY and attended the “Rome academy” and people from the area then and now refer to themselves as “Romans.”

    posted by Richard Stans on 4-17-2010 at 4:41 am

  21. Melissa,

    I too was told by my AP Euro teacher that it goes to the hundred years war sooo I don’t think that we were misinformed…unless we had the same teacher!

    posted by Jessica on 4-17-2010 at 10:12 am

  22. I think the fist bump is baseball related. Moises Alou, a former outfielder for a few teams including the cubs and the mets never wore batting gloves. when an interviewer asked him how he protected his hands, he said that he urinated on his hands to toughen up the skin. when other players heard about this they started giving him the close handed fist bump instead of a high five. apparently no one wanted to high five the guy who peed on his hands.

    posted by Cory on 4-17-2010 at 10:22 am

  23. Melissa and Jessica,

    I’m sorry to inform you, but your AP teachers were simply perpetuating a very old urban myth.

    The Finger goes back a lot farther than the 100 Years War. Ancient Romans and Greeks used it long before any English longbowmen did.

    Here’s an article from The Straight Dope that will fill you in on all the details of “digitus infamis”: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1279/whats-the-origin-of-the-finger

    posted by SpaceMonkeyX on 4-17-2010 at 11:12 am

  24. Well, I did forget one small bit of info on the “Hook’em Horns” – “F—’em Sooners” bid’ness…and that is that the Sooners, when greeting the Longhorns fans, also have a hand sign that goes with their shout…and that would be an extended middle finger.

    posted by M. Forrest on 4-17-2010 at 1:07 pm

  25. I had heard the middle finger thing as well. The first great act of defiance.

    posted by gus on 4-17-2010 at 2:04 pm

  26. @ Melissa:

    Sorry, Snopes says that is totally false origin of the middle finger. I always thought it was a cool sounding backstory though right?

    posted by Tricia on 4-17-2010 at 2:55 pm

  27. The ASL sign for “I Love You” combines the sign for I, L, and Y. I wish more people were informed about it, because too many ask me why I’m doing the devil horns to my three year old….

    posted by Mare on 4-17-2010 at 10:25 pm

  28. The story of the English Longbowmen is not an urban myth, however, it has nothing to do with the middle finger gesture. The British stick up both the pointer and middle finger, the fingers used to draw a bow, and fingers that were cut off when English longbowmen were captured. It has nothing to do with the sole middle finger, you are correct, but it does have to do with the British hand gesture equivalent.

    posted by Matthew on 4-18-2010 at 3:29 am

  29. What you’re calling the “shaka” and many of us think of as “hang loose” has a completely different meaning in much of Latin America. There’s usually only one slight difference: the hand is positioned with the pinky inward(next to the body), the thumb pointing outward, and the back of the hand facing forward(toward the target). This is not a greating, but an almost literal “f**k you”. I’ve been told by several Mexican friends that it stems from a sort of pantomime motion where one elaborately mimics the act of sodomy, with both hands held as described, and lowered to just forward of the hips, as if holding onto the imaginary victim’s hindquarters.

    Obviously this is a very rude expression, almost equivalent to our “middle finger”, but probably much more offensive. One popular use of the expression is to show representations political figures, corporate leaders, etc. aiming this gesture at the general public to indicate that they are ‘screwing us’.

    It bears repeating that our “hang loose” can be Very easily misconstrued by many latinos from Mexico, Central, and South America, including Brazilians. Food for thought.

    posted by Je-Tze on 4-20-2010 at 1:28 am

  30. How about the good old fashioned hand shake? I don’t remember where I heard or read it, but the hand shake originated to show someone that you were greeting that you were unarmed and didn’t have any weapons up your sleeve. And orginally, you would grasp each others forearms instead of the hands themselves. Over time it evolved to just grasping and shaking the right hand. Please correct me if I’m wrong or if anyone has anything else to add.

    posted by Eric on 4-20-2010 at 9:52 am

  31. I came here to state what Angela stated: George W. Bush is not a Texan; he just lives in Texas. That does not make him a Texan.

    He was born in Connecticut.

    posted by Dewayne on 4-20-2010 at 9:50 pm

  32. The one hand single that you did not expound upon was the single your mother used quite often. Now that was one single that I understood.

    posted by ferrell on 4-21-2010 at 10:42 pm

  33. I live in Hawai’i, and the only times you really see some shaka are when somebody busts out a camera and the tourists want a souvenir to prove they were here, or in traffic if you pause to let somebody merge in front of you or make a left turn or whatevah.

    posted by Adam on 4-23-2010 at 8:10 am

  34. The middle finger is “offensive” because of what it looks like: a long protrusion surrounded on either side by roundish lumps. Sorta looks like something else, which likewise explains it’s connection to the F-bomb.

    posted by Dawg on 4-24-2010 at 12:41 pm

  35. This article states that George W. Bush is a “Texas native.”

    Incorrect. Mr. Bush was born in New Haven, Conneticut. There’s nothing “Texan” about him that isn’t part of his carefully-crafted persona, designed specifically to get him elected.

    posted by TxWranglr on 4-27-2010 at 9:13 am

  36. I have to post to this because of an mistake in the Corna gesture. Not on the gesture itself or its history except the massive mistake that Ronnie James Dio was the lead singer of Black Sabbath.

    This is horribly wrong. Ronnie James Dio was the lead singer of the self named band DIO. The lead singer of Black Sabbath was and always will be Ozzy Osborne. Now as to which one of these two used this symbol first I dunno. But get your band facts right…

    posted by Darklight on 5-5-2010 at 4:10 pm

  37. The vulcan salute – “The Orthodox priest giving the blessing holds both hands out in front of him in these strange configurations, palms down”

    There is no priests in Judaism. There are Rabbi’s.

    I haven’t frequented your blog before, but considering this was my first impression with a mistake so simple to correct as identifying the proper clergy type, I am not internested in reading it anymore.

    posted by R.G. on 5-5-2010 at 5:10 pm

  38. R.G. (If you should ever read this…)

    According to my source for this story – written by an actual Rabbi – the correct term in this case is priests.

    “The Vulcan greeting is based upon a blessing gesture used by the kohanim (koe-hah-NEEM) during the worship service. The kohanim are the genealogical descendants of the Jewish priests who served in the Jerusalem Temple. Modern Jews no longer have priests leading services as in ancient times, nor do we have animal sacrifices anymore. (Yes, people really do ask about that!)”

    You can check that out here, if you’d like: http://www.pinenet.com/~rooster/v-salute.html

    posted by SpaceMonkeyX on 5-5-2010 at 5:45 pm

  39. Weird, it deleted half my comment.

    Anyway, I think it’s understandable that I called them priests considering the blessing itself is called the Priestly Blessing (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priestly_Blessing) and they’re often referenced as priests (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kohen). I can understand if there’s a fine line or if one is more common than the other, though. Hopefully you’ll come back someday and allow us to entertain and inform you.

    posted by SpaceMonkeyX on 5-5-2010 at 5:57 pm

  40. @ Darklight…You may only recognize Ozzy as the lead singer for Sabbath but in truth he is one of many. Dio, Tony Martin, Ray Gillen, Ian Gillan are some others who sang for Sabbath over the years. The only mistake in the article is the “late 70′s” time frame. RJD’s first album w/ Sabbath was released in 1980 (Heaven and Hell)

    posted by Mike on 5-5-2010 at 9:54 pm

  41. @Darklight and @Mike:
    There’s no question Ozzy is the best-known singer for Black Sabbath. But Ronnie James Dio was the singer from June 1979 until November 1982, which is when he left to go start his own band, DIO. And, yes, he took his signature gesture with him, as was seen on some pretty epic album covers at the time.

    Source:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sabbath#Heaven_and_Hell_and_Mob_Rules_.281979.E2.80.931982.29

    posted by SpaceMonkeyX on 5-5-2010 at 10:55 pm

  42. The “Corna” has become the most meaningless hand gesture you can do thanks to the power of morons.

    posted by Name (required) on 5-6-2010 at 3:33 am

  43. SpaceMonkeyX- OK, fine. I was referring to a product release date as the defining factor not when the decision was made to hire him. Technically speaking the “late 70′s” is correct. Thanks.

    ps. Dio returned as singer for a few years now and they go by the name Heaven and Hell. They only play songs from the DIO era.

    posted by Mike on 5-6-2010 at 8:36 am

  44. RIP, Dio

    posted by D on 5-18-2010 at 1:30 am

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