Finger (gesture)
In Western culture, the finger (as in giving someone the finger or the bird), also known as the middle finger or flipping someone off, is an obscene hand gesture, often meaning the phrases "fuck off" ("screw off"), "fuck you" ("screw you") or "up yours". It is performed by showing the back of a closed fist that has only the middle finger extended upwards. In a more common and less obscene use, extending the finger is the universal symbol of contempt.
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[edit] Origin
The finger is one of the most ancient insult gestures and was seen as phallic in meaning.[1] In Ancient Greece it was known as the κατάπυγον[2][3] (katapugon, from kata - κατά, "downwards"[4] and pugē - πυγή, "rump, buttocks"[5]) and reference is made to using the finger in ancient Greek comedy to insult another person, where the term katapugon also meant "a male (or a female, katapugaina[6]) who submits to anal penetration".[7] In Ancient Roman writings it is identified as the digitus impudicus (impudent finger)[8][1] and the widespread usage of the finger in many cultures is likely because of the geographical influence of the Roman Empire and Greco-Roman civilization.[citation needed] Another possible origin of this gesture can be found in the first-century Mediterranean world, where extending the finger was one of many methods used to divert the ever-present threat of the evil eye offense.[9]
According to anthropologist Desmond Morris, the gesture probably came to the United States from Italian immigrants and is documented as early as 1886 when a baseball pitcher for the Boston Beaneaters was photographed giving it to a member of the rival New York Giants.[1]
[edit] Other names
The gesture has also been referred to flipping, flicking off (sometimes flashing or flying) the bird;[11] or it could be flipping somebody off.[11]
[edit] See also
- Bras d'honneur
- Obscene gestures
- V Sign, for the obscene bird-finger gesture in the UK
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Nasaw, Daniel (2012-02-06). "When did the middle finger become offensive?". BBC News Magazine (BBC). http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16916263. Retrieved 2012-02-07.
- ^ κατάπυγον, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
- ^ David M. Halperin, John J. Winkler, Before Sexuality: The Construction of Erotic Experience in the Ancient Greek World, p.186. Princeton University Press, on Google books
- ^ κατά, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
- ^ πυγή, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
- ^ Claude Calame, Janet Lloyd, The poetics of eros in Ancient Greece, p. 137, Princeton University Press, 1999, on Google books
- ^ Beth Cohen, Not the classical ideal: Athens and the construction of the other in Greek art, p.186, Brill, 2000
- ^ Adams, Cecil. "What's the origin of 'the finger'?" Straight Dope, September 4, 1998
- ^ Malina, Bruce J., The New Testament World: Insights from Cultural Anthropology, 3rd Ed., (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001)
- ^ Achorn, Edward (2010). Fifty-nine in '84: Old Hoss Radbourn, Barehanded Baseball, and the Greatest Season a Pitcher Ever Had. Smithsonian Books. p. 24. ISBN 978-0061825866.
- ^ a b Kipfer, Barbara Ann; Chapman, Robert L. (2008). American Slang. HarperCollins. p. 165. ISBN 9780061179471. OCLC 191931926.
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Middle finger gestures |
- Robbins, Ira P. (2004), Digitus Impudicus: The Middle Finger and the Law, http://lawreview.law.ucdavis.edu/issues/41-4_Robbins.pdf, retrieved 2010-03-01.
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