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Che vuoi?

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Michael Peña doing the gesture alongside Diego Luna at Lucca Comics & Games in 2018.

Che vuoi? (Italian pronunciation: [ke vˈvwɔi]; transl. "what do you want?"), alternatively described as ma che vuoi?, ma che dici?/ma che stai dicendo? ("what are you talking about?"), or simply che? ("what?"), is one of the best known hand gestures of Italy.[1][2][3] In English, it is sometimes referred to as "pinched fingers" or "finger purse" (Italian: mano a borsa).[4] It is meant to express disbelief at what the other person is saying or doing, and/or to ridicule their opinions.

Gesture overview

This gesture is produced where the tips of all the fingers of one hand are brought together to form an "upward pointing cone", with the hand then being moved up and down either from the wrist or forearm.[5] The hand can be motionless while performing this hand gesture, or can also be shaken up and down, if the person wants to express impatience.[5] While it is particularly common in the South, it is a gesture that is widely used in Italy. The frequency and speed of vertical motion indicates the level of frustration of the speaker.[6]

Legacy

Use in other countries

The gesture is also widely used in Uruguay and Argentina, two Latin American countries with large Italian diasporas, with similar connotations.[7][8] In Malawi, the gesture refers to human testicles (machende) in the Bantu language Chichewa.[citation needed]

The same gesture is used in Israel with the meaning of "wait a minute" or "give me a minute".[9][10]

As an emoji

The emoji for the gesture (🤌) was proposed in 2019 as submission L2/19-159,[3] approved as part of Unicode 13.0 in 2020,[11] and added later that year as U+1F90C.

References

  1. ^ Marchetti, Silvia (29 May 2015). "Italian hand gestures everyone should know". CNN Travel. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
  2. ^ Cassone, Alberto. "Gesti italiani". Italiana - Lingua e Cultura (in Italian). Archived from the original on 20 September 2020. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
  3. ^ a b Farano, Adriano; Lee, Jennifer; Schear, Theo (17 April 2019). ""What do you want?" Pinched Fingers Emoji Proposal" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 16 May 2019.
  4. ^ "🤌 Pinched Fingers Emoji". Emojipedia. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  5. ^ a b Munari, Bruno (2013) [1963]. Supplemento al dizionario italiano (in Italian). Mantova: Corraini. ISBN 978-88-86250-91-7. OCLC 48965019.
  6. ^ "Esempi ed interpretazioni di tipici gesti napoletani". www.portanapoli.com (in Italian). Retrieved 22 October 2019.
  7. ^ ""Qué te pasa" el popular gesto en Argentina e Italia se convierte en emoji". El Tribuno (in Spanish). 30 January 2020. Retrieved 27 August 2020.
  8. ^ ""Qué te pasa": llega el emoji de un gesto típico de Argentina e Italia". Telefe Noticias (in Spanish). 30 January 2020. Retrieved 27 August 2020.
  9. ^ "New emoji is Israelis' way of saying 'wait a minute'".
  10. ^ "Israel - Social Customs in Israel | Fodor's Travel Guide - Expert Picks for your Vacation | Fodor's Travel".
  11. ^ "Emoji Recently Added, v13.0". Unicode. Retrieved 30 January 2020.
  • Media related to Che vuoi? at Wikimedia Commons
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