Thumb signal
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A thumb signal, usually described as a thumbs-up or thumbs-down, is a common
History
Natural human behaviour
While the exact source of the thumb gesture is obscure, several origins have been proposed.
Ancient Rome
The Latin phrase pollice verso is used in the context of gladiatorial combat for a hand gesture used by Ancient Roman crowds to pass judgment on a defeated gladiator.
Now they give shows of their own. Thumbs up! Thumbs down! And the killers, spare or slay, and then go back to concessions for private privies.
— Juvenal, Against the City of Rome (c. 110–127 A.D.)
While it is clear that the thumb was involved, the precise type of gesture described by the phrase pollice verso and its meaning are unclear in the historical and literary record.
Middle Ages
It has been suggested that 'thumbs up' was a signal from English archers preparing for battle that all is well with their bow and they are ready to fight. Before use, the fistmele (or the "brace height") was checked, that being the distance between the string and the bow on an English longbow. This fistmele should be about 7 inches (18 cm), which is about the same as a fist with a thumb extended. The term fistmele is a Saxon word that refers to that measurement.[9]
20th century
The
Popularization in the United States is generally attributed to the practices of
During World War II, pilots on US
21st century
Senator John McCain of Arizona, when he cast the deciding vote that derailed a Republican repeal of the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") on July 28, 2017, used the thumbs down gesture.[13]
In 2023, a farmer in Canada was fined C$82,000 ($USD 61,610), having used a thumbs-up emoji in response to a text message contract, which was ruled as a binding agreement. The farmer failed to fulfill the contract by not delivering the expected amount of flax, leading to the penalty. The judge considered the emoji's meaning of assent or approval, concluding that it can serve as a digital signature. The ruling recognized the use of non-traditional methods, like emojis, in confirming contracts in today's technological landscape.[14]
International usage
The thumbs up signal has a generally positive connotation in English-speaking countries. However, its perceived meaning varies significantly from culture to culture.[15]
The sign is said to have a pejorative meaning in some countries, including Iran.[16]
In Germany, France, Hungary and Finland the gesture can simply indicate the number one, in the right context.
The thumbs up gesture is used on the logo of
On the Internet, and most particularly on the social media site Facebook, the thumbs up gesture is shown as an icon and is associated with the term "like"—which within that context means to follow or subscribe to the page, posts, or profile of another individual or company; and on YouTube, individual videos may be voted on positively or negatively by clicking the thumbs-up or thumbs-down icons respectively (which in some previous versions of the site, used to be accompanied by "Like" and "Dislike" labels, and are still referred as such nowadays), and in the case of a thumbs-up, the video gets added to the user's "Liked videos" playlist. See like button.
In underwater diving signals, thumb up means "let's go up".[18]
Context-specific usage
This section needs additional citations for verification. (January 2017) |
More recently, these gestures are associated with film reviews, having been popularized by critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert[19] on their televised review show Siskel & Ebert; the thumb up meaning a positive opinion of a film; the thumb down meaning a negative one. The trademarked phrase "two thumbs up", originally meaning a positive review from both reviewers, has come to be used as an indication of very high quality or unanimity of praise.
By extension from the film review usage,
In
In basketball, when a held ball occurs, an official will jerk both thumbs in the air, signalling that a jump ball is in order.
In baseball, umpires will sometimes jerk a thumbs-up over their shoulder as an "out" signal
Amusement park rides such as
Unicode
Unicode code points related to thumb signals include:
- U+1F44D 👍 THUMBS UP SIGN (glyph displayed as 👍︎ with variation selector-15, if supported by browser)
- U+1F44E 👎 THUMBS DOWN SIGN (glyph displayed as 👎︎ with variation selector-15, if supported by browser)
- U+1F592 🖒 REVERSED THUMBS UP SIGN
- U+1F593 🖓 REVERSED THUMBS DOWN SIGN
Other encodings
Many keyboard emoticons utilize the shapes of lowercase "b" and "d" to represent a thumbs-up sign. Simple versions incorporate a dash for the wrist: -b or =b (right hand) and d- or d= (left hand). Many Japanese kaomoji icons place the thumbs beside a face constructed from punctuation marks, such as d(^^)b or b(~_^)d.[24] Various instant messaging services use (y)
and (n)
as a shortcut for thumbs up and thumbs down emoji.[25][26]
See also
- OK (gesture)
- Finger (gesture)
References
- ^ Carlton S. Coon: "The Story of Man" (1954)
- ^ "James Grout: The Gladiator and the Thumb, part of the Encyclopædia Romana". Penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2013-07-03.
- ^ "Desmond Morris, Peter Collett, Peter Marsh and Marie O'Shaughnessy, 1979 Webified by Bernd Wechner: Gestures: Their Origin and Meanings, The Thumb Up". Bernd.wechner.info. Retrieved 2013-07-03.
- ^ "Did The Romans Turn Thumbs Down On Gladiators?". News.ku.edu. 1997-09-29. Retrieved 2013-07-03.
- ^ a b Koerner, Brendan (28 March 2003). "What does a "thumbs up" mean in Iraq?". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
- ^ Where Does the 'Thumbs-Up' Gesture Really Come From?, Time
- ^ "Ancient Rome, thumbs up & thumbs down meant the opposite of what many think". The Vintage News. 2016-08-03. Retrieved 2022-03-10.
- ^ "Pollice Verso". penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2022-03-10.
- ^ Hagar, George (1841). "Chapter 10". Of the Shaft, Ancient and Modern. The Archery Library: Hansard.
- Time Magazine.
- ^ "The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-19. Retrieved 2018-08-11.
- ^ Toledo, Roberto Pompeu de (March 14, 2007). "Uma paixão dos brasileiros". Veja Magazine (1999): 110.
- ^ Peter W. Stevenson. "The iconic thumbs-down vote that summed up John McCain's career". washingtonpost.com.
- ^ "Farmer fined $61,000 for using thumbs-up emoji". BBC News. 2023-07-06. Retrieved 2023-07-08.
- ISBN 1-57958-451-9.
- ^ McCrum, Mark (15 October 2007). "Top 10 travel faux pas". The Guardian.
- ^ "এক টাকার কয়েন তৈরি করতে কত খরচ ? যা জানা গেল– News18 Bengali". bengali.news18.com (in Bengali). December 7, 2018. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
- ^ "22 Easy Scuba Diving Hand Signals You Should Know". Scubaco.
- ^ CBS (2 January 2011). "Roger Ebert's New Voice". Archived from the original on 2021-12-19 – via YouTube.
- ^ Pulver, Andrew (23 June 2016). "'Thumbs down': female critics vastly outnumbered by male counterparts – new study". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2 May 2017.
- ^ Wickman, Forrest (12 June 2012). "Digit to Ride". Slate. Retrieved 2 May 2017.
- ^ Feather, Lauren (21 December 2016). "Hand signals are the most effective means of communication underwater. Do you know which are the most common?". scubadiverlife.com. Retrieved 2 May 2017.
- ^ Burka, Paul, "Football Hand Signals", Texas Monthly, archived from the original on December 22, 2004, retrieved 2007-07-10
- ^ "thumbs up | Japanese Emoticons | Jemoticons (´・ω・')". www.jemoticons.com. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
- ^ "List of emoticons in MSN messenger".
- ^ "Thumb Up / Like Sign Facebook Chat Emoticons Shortcut Keys Code Dislike button". November 3, 2011.