You can’t beat gestural slang, which is why the late Baroness Trumpington’s two-fingered salute spoke to our hearts
Gestural slang has given us the best in communication for at least 2,500 years. The Roman poet Martial and the historian Suetonius both noted the use of the impudent or infamous digit. Nowadays, that classic middle finger decorates territorial claims from playgrounds to motorways. Whether in good-humoured repudiation or less nuanced acts of aggression, the origins of this essentially European gesture are apparently phallic. That finger you may have just flipped in response to these words represents a penis in a state of some excitement.
On the other hand, the signature gesture of confrontational British slang uses twice as many fingers. We may use a single digit when it suits us, but a V-sign says it better. The gesturer’s palm faces inward, the index and middle fingers are raised, spread, and often jerked upwards. This week the gesture had another moment as tributes were paid to Baroness Trumpington following her death – many recalled the casual élan with which she once flicked the V at a patronising peer in the House of Lords.
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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2E4Gxur
