Sign of the horns
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The sign of the horns is a hand gesture with a variety of meanings and uses in various cultures. It is formed by extending the index and little fingers while holding the middle and ring fingers down with the thumb.
Religious and superstitious meaning
In
An
In Italy and other parts of the
The sign of the horns is used during religious rituals in
In LaVeyan Satanism, the sign of the horns is used as a traditional salutation, either for informal or ritual purposes.[5]
Offensive gesture
In many
Northwestern European and North American popular culture
Contemporary use by musicians and actors
There is a 1927 jazz recording by the New Orleans Owls, "Throwin' the Horns", on 78 rpm, Columbia 1261-D. It has a humorous vocal by two of the band members.[12]
Ike Turner told in an interview that he used the sign in his piano playing on Howlin' Wolf's blues song "How Many More Years" in 1951.[13]
Marlon Brando makes the sign whilst singing "Luck Be a Lady" in the 1955 film Guys and Dolls, seeming to indicate it was a sign for snake eyes in the craps game he is playing for the gamblers' souls.[14]
The 1969 back album cover for
Beginning in the early 1970s, the horns were known as the "P-Funk sign" to fans of Parliament-Funkadelic. It was used by George Clinton and Bootsy Collins as the password to the Mothership,[16] a central element in Parliament's science-fiction mythology, and fans used it in return to show their enthusiasm for the band. Collins is depicted showing the P-Funk sign on the cover of his 1977 album Ahh... The Name Is Bootsy, Baby!.
Heavy metal culture
Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath can be seen "raising the horns" in a photograph taken in 1969.[19] The photograph is included in the CD booklet of the Symptom of the Universe: The Original Black Sabbath 1970–1978 compilation album. This would indicate that there had been some association between the "horns" and heavy metal before Dio's popularization of it. Although The Beatles aren’t directly associated with heavy metal, John Lennon can be seen doing the "horn-sign" in a photograph already two years prior to Butler. The photoshoot was done for the promotion for their upcoming cartoon movie Yellow Submarine in late 1967. The official movie poster of 1968 showing the Beatles in cartoon form depicts Lennon performing the same gesture.
When asked if he was the one who introduced the hand gesture to metal subculture, Dio said in a 2001 interview:
I doubt very much if I would be the first one who ever did that. That's like saying I invented the wheel, I'm sure someone did that at some other point. I think you'd have to say that I made it fashionable. I used it so much and all the time and it had become my trademark until the Britney Spears audience decided to do it as well. So it kind of lost its meaning with that. But it was ... I was in Sabbath at the time. It was a symbol that I thought was reflective of what that band was supposed to be all about. It's not the devil's sign like we're here with the devil. It's an Italian thing I got from my Grandmother called the "Malocchio". It's to ward off the Evil Eye or to give the Evil Eye, depending on which way you do it. It's just a symbol but it had magical incantations and attitudes to it and I felt it worked very well with Sabbath. So I became very noted for it and then everybody else started to pick up on it and away it went. But I would never say I take credit for being the first to do it. I say because I did it so much that it became the symbol of rock and roll of some kind.
Gene Simmons of the rock group KISS attempted to claim the "devil horns" hand gesture for his own. According to CBS News, Simmons filed an application on June 16, 2017, with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a trademark on the hand gesture he regularly shows during concerts and public appearances—thumb, index, and pinky fingers extended, with the middle and ring fingers folded down (like the ILY sign meaning "I love you" in the American Sign Language). According to Simmons, this hand gesture was first commercially used—by him—on November 14, 1974. He claimed the hand gesture should be trademarked for "entertainment, namely live performances by a musical artist [and] personal appearances by a musical artist."[20] Simmons abandoned this application on June 21, 2017.[21]
The Japanese kawaii metal band Babymetal uses the kitsune sign, their own variation of the sign of the horns, symbolizing their personal deity, the Fox God. The middle, ring finger, and thumb join at the tips to form the snout, the extended index and pinky fingers are the ears.[22][23] This gesture is similar in appearance to the salute of the Turanist Grey Wolves movement.
-
Vocalist Ronnie James Dio (on the right) making the sign at a Heaven & Hell concert in 2009. To his right is Geezer Butler. The gesture is quite common within heavy metal culture.
-
Elize Ryd making the sign at a concert in 2018
-
Yuimetal, former member of Babymetal, showing the kitsune sign, 2015
-
A man in steampunk-style glasses makes the sign of the horns at a rock concert.
Electronic communication
In text-based electronic communication, the sign of the horns is represented with the \../
, \m/
or |m|
emoticon and sometimes with /../
. The Unicode character U+1F918 🤘 SIGN OF THE HORNS was introduced in Unicode 8.0 as an emoji, on June 17, 2015.[24]
Gang hand signal
The "sign of the horns" hand gesture is used in criminal gang subcultures to indicate membership or affiliation with Mara Salvatrucha. The significance is both the resemblance of an inverted "devil horns" to the Latin letter 'M', and in the broader demonic connotation, of fierceness and nonconformity.
Sports culture
Fans of the University of South Florida Bulls use the same hand sign at their athletic events, except that the hand is turned around and facing the other way. With the middle and ring finger extending towards the person presenting the "Go Bulls" sign.
Fans of North Dakota State University Bison athletics also use a similar hand gesture, known as "Go Bison!" The pinky and index fingers are usually slightly bent, however, to mimic the shape of a bison's horns.
Fans of North Carolina State University Wolfpack athletics use a similar gesture with the middle and ring fingers moving up and down over the thumb to mimic a wolf's jaw.
Fans of University of California, Irvine Anteaters use a similar sign with the middle and ring fingers out to resemble the head of an anteater.
Fans of University of Nevada, Reno Wolf Pack athletics use a similar sign with the middle and ring fingers out to resemble the wolf's snout.
A variation of this hand gesture is also used in the professional wrestling industry, which fans dub the "Too Sweet". It was possibly innovated by Scott Hall and the other members of The Kliq based on the Turkish Grey Wolves (organization) organization hand gesture according to Sean Waltman, and has since been attributed to other wrestling groups such as the nWo and Bullet Club, as well as individual wrestlers such as Finn Bálor.
Fans of University of Utah athletics, particularly football and gymnastics, use a gesture where the index and pinky finger are straight and parallel to each other, forming a block "U."[25]
Fans of Northwestern State University Demon athletics also use a similar hand gesture, known as "Fork 'em!" The pinky and index fingers are extended but a little more parallel to each other resembling the horns on a demon.
Fans of the
Fans of the Grand Canyon University Antelopes use this hand gesture with a slight variation by touching the tips of the ring and middle finger with the thumb to form the shape of an antelope and its horns. Often followed by the phrase "Lopes up".
Fans of the
Fans of University at Buffalo Buffalo Bulls athletics use the same hand sign at their athletic events. This gesture is meant to resemble a bull's horns.
See also
- Cornicello
- ILY sign is sometimes confused with this gesture because many users tend to do the "horns" improperly by extending their thumb.
- Shaka sign
References
- ^ a b c Chakraborty, Shruti (January 4, 2018). "Is Rajinikanth's party symbol the same as Apana Mudra for 'detoxification and purification'?". The Indian Express. Retrieved February 4, 2021.
- ISBN 978-1-932476-38-5.
- ^ "Stone Statue of Lao Tze". Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China. Administrative Office for Quanzhou. Retrieved February 4, 2021.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner by Scott Cunningham, p. 42.
- ^ LaVey, Anton Szandor (1969). The Satanic Bible. New York: Avon. pp. 133–134.
- ^ "Rude hand gestures of the world (don't try these on holiday)". The Telegraph. February 4, 2016. Archived from the original on January 12, 2022 – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
- ^ "International field guide to rude hand gestures". Archived from the original on December 14, 2013.
- ^ "Hand Gestures in Different Cultures".
- ISBN 9781452110172.
- ^ "Hand Gestures Part Two—The Cuckold Gesture". Reading-Body-Language.co.uk.
- ^ "Top 10 Worst Silvio Berlusconi Gaffes". Time. December 8, 2012. Retrieved May 21, 2017 – via content.time.com.
- ^ "Columbia matrix W145024. Throwin' the horns / New Orleans Owls". Discography of American Historical Recordings. Retrieved June 10, 2023.
- ^ Turner, Ike (1995). "Rock and Roll; Renegades; Interview with Ike Turner [Part 1 of 3]". GBH Archives (Interview). Boston, Massachusetts: WGBH Educational Foundation. 13:46–14:27. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
- ^ "Marlon Brando-Luck Be a Lady". youtube.com. Archived from the original on November 7, 2021. Retrieved September 13, 2017.
- ^ Hartmann, Graham (June 16, 2017). "Occult Rock Act Coven Threaten to Sue Gene Simmons If He Trademarks Rock Hand Gesture". Loudwire. Retrieved June 4, 2022.
- ^ a b Appleford, Steve (September 9, 2004). "Odyssey of the Devil Horns". Los Angeles City Beat. Archived from the original on November 22, 2007.
A friend arranges a meeting with Clinton. I hand him a photograph of Dio making the hand signal, and tell him this is the man (or one of them) credited with bringing it to rock. Clinton stares at the picture for a long, silent minute, breathing heavily. Another minute passes. He's never heard of Ronnie James Dio. It's the P-Funk sign, man.
- ^ "The Devil's Horns: A Rock And Roll Symbol". Ultimate-Guitar.com. September 7, 2005. Archived from the original on February 22, 2014. Retrieved March 21, 2009.
- ^ Ronnie James Dio interview in the 2005 documentary Metal: A Headbanger's Journey. In the interview he also ridicules Gene Simmons for taking credit for originating use of the sign in heavy metal, attributing the claim to Simmons' well-known egotism.
- ^ Fashingbauer Cooper, Gael (June 15, 2017). "KISS star Gene Simmons wants to trademark 'devil horns'". CNET. Retrieved September 1, 2020.
- ^ "Gene Simmons wants to trademark "devil horns" hand gesture". CBS News. June 15, 2017.
- ^ "Gene Simmons Abandons Hand Gesture Trademark Application". Forbes. June 21, 2017.
- ^ Phro, Preston (June 21, 2013). "Put your kitsune up! BABYMETAL is set to dominate the world with 'dangerous kawaii' [Interview]". SoraNews24. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
- ^ Turman, Katherine (June 19, 2017). "Can Gene Simmons Actually Trademark the 'Metal Horns'? A Historic and Legal Perspective". Variety. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
- ^ "'Burrito,' 'Sign of ohe Horns,' and 35 other emoji approved in Unicode 8.0". June 18, 2015. Retrieved May 21, 2017.
- ^ "MUSS - Student Cheer Section for the U of U Utes - University of Utah Alumni Association | MUSS". Alumni.utah.edu. March 18, 2011. Retrieved August 13, 2012.
External links
- Haverty, Neil (May 30, 2002). "Ronnie James Dio Re-Claims the Devil Horns". Chart. Archived from the original on October 3, 2009. Retrieved September 27, 2009.)
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- Odyssey of the Devil Horns: Who is responsible for bringing metal's famous hand signal to the tribe? Los Angeles CityBeat, September 9, 2004