The origin of popular hand gestures

Handshake, V-shaped finger, thumb pointing up . These hand gestures you can see anywhere, but not everyone knows its meaning.

1. Shake hands

Handshake is a long-standing and symbolic gesture language when greeted. A handshake regarded as a gesture of greeting or unity of the contract has been widely used at least since the 2nd century BC. Historically there is a perception that, that shows goodwill and friendship in unarmed hands, while in sports it is a symbol of fairness and respect for opponents.

Right-handed means unifying the contract, while the left hand represents the cancellation.

For many years, the world record holder for shaking hands was US President Theodore Roosevelt. On January 1, 1907, he shook hands with 8,513 people in a meeting at the White House. However, by July 1977, that record was broken by Mr. Joseph Lazaron, mayor of New Jersey (USA), with 11,000 handshakes in just one day.

2. Two V-shaped fingers

This gesture was first used by British gunners after winning the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. The French archers cut off the first two fingers used to hold the arrow when shooting the archers. brother. After winning against the British, these archers raised two fingers to signal that they were normal. Since 1960, daily two-finger V-shaped gestures are still used as a symbol of peace and goodwill.

US President Richard Nixon and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill often use this gesture as a symbol of victory.

3. Thumb pointing up

In Russia, this gesture means 'everything is fine' , similar to the American OK. For Arabs, Turks and Greeks, the thumb upwards is said to be the 'precious' symbol of men and the humiliation.

This gesture stems from the battles of the ancient city of Rome. Here, the winner waits for this sign from the emperor or an official present on the stand to determine how to deal with the losing opponent. If sympathetic, the thumb pointing up, showing pardon, or thumb pointing down and that means death sentence for the failure. However, another gesture to show amnesty is to give a fist-shaped hand, and the death penalty is shown by a sweeping gesture that cuts through the throat.

4. Hello flag

The custom of greeting the flag in the military today is derived from an island of England. Previously in the army of many countries around the world, subordinates greeted their superiors by taking off their hats as they had in the British army.

However, by the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the costume of soldiers' hats became very cumbersome, making it easier to switch to greeting by touching the cap of the hat.

5. Stone, scissors, paper

Stone, scissors, paper are the means to resolve all disputes that are popular all over the world. This game was invented by the generals at the end of the Han Dynasty (China) and the Chinese name is shǒushìlìng.

This world championship game is currently held with a huge prize posted on many famous publications. Currently there is an international federation and official regulations on this sport.

6. Ok

There are many different theories about the origin of Ok. The popular hypothesis is that it was derived from the eighth President of the United States Martin Van Buren, who chose the alias Old Kinderhook, and in his campaign in 1840 used the phrase Old Kinderhook is OK do advertising slogan.

There is another theory, the OK symbol represents the acronym for oll korrect in the language of a funny story (inverted in English of the phrase all correct in Boston newspaper in 1839. There is one more) The same hypothesis is, US President Andrew Jackson used this gesture when he passed administrative decisions, he wrote all correct words in the German way of writing oll korrekt or abbreviated to OK.

Anyway, this is still one of the most well-known gestures, and it is easy to come across an abbreviation OK everywhere from computer programs to everyday communication.