Hand gestures that mean something else in other countries

In January 1992, US President George H. W. Bush drove past a group of farmers protesting in Canberra, Australia, against American agricultural subsidies. He raised two fingers in a V, the sign for peace and victory. But his palm faced himself, and in Australia that is an insulting gesture, close to the middle finger.

The episode shows the trouble with hand gestures: the same sign can be a compliment in one country and an insult in the next, and travelers usually find out from the face of the person in front of them. The four cases below are the ones that catch visitors off guard most often.

The OK sign: from zero to insult

The circle made with the thumb and index finger changes meaning more than any other gesture. According to Wikipedia, which pulls together etiquette guides and books on gestures, it means:

• Japan: money, because the circle looks like a coin;
• France: zero or “worthless,” more so in the south, while the “all good” reading is more common in the north;
• Turkey, parts of the Middle East, Germany and Latin America: a vulgar reference to the anus, used as an insult. In Turkey, it is considered very offensive.

A well-known anecdote, repeated by the same encyclopedia from a book by the consultant Roger Axtell and a 1996 New York Times article, says Vice President Richard Nixon stepped off a plane in Brazil in the 1950s flashing the OK sign with both hands to please the crowd, and the crowd took it as an insult. It is a retold story with no exact date, so treat it as an illustration, not a record.

The V for victory and the V for insult

The V with the palm facing out is the victory sign. It was proposed in January 1941 by the exiled Belgian politician Victor de Laveleye in a BBC broadcast to occupied Belgium: the V stood for victoire in French and vrijheid, “freedom,” in Dutch. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill began using it after a speech on 19 July 1941.

With the back of the hand facing the viewer, the same gesture is an insult in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The story that it began with Welsh archers at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 is a legend, with no source from the time to support it. The earliest clear evidence of the insulting version in Britain is a 1901 film of an ironworks laborer in Rotherham.

That was Bush’s mistake in 1992. A 2010 lecture to the Australian Senate by a political cartoonist who was in Canberra that day describes the scene: Bush thought he was making the V for victory.

The open hand in the face: the Greek moutza

In Greece, pushing an open hand with spread fingers toward someone’s face is the moutza, one of the country’s most traditional insults. The closer to the face, the heavier it is. With both hands, it becomes a doubled version.

The origin is said to be Byzantine. According to Wikipedia, criminals were led on a donkey with their faces smeared with ash (moútzos), and the gesture imitates rubbing that ash on a face. A link to ancient rites appears in the same text as a hypothesis that still needs a better source.

The practical detail is what Greeks do without thinking: when counting to five, they avoid spreading their fingers or turning the palm outward, so the count isn’t read as a moutza.

The thumbs up: less simple than it looks

For many English speakers, a thumbs up means “great.” Elsewhere, the meaning shifts:

• Germany, France and Hungary: the thumb often marks the number one when counting, according to a 2009 study in the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology;
• Iran: a 2007 travel-mistakes guide in The Guardian lists it as an insult. That is a press source, not research, so check with someone who lives there.

The Roman origin is also less certain than the movies suggest. The idea that a thumb up spared a gladiator and a thumb down condemned him has no clear support in ancient texts. The classicist Anthony Corbeill even argued the opposite: a raised thumb would be the signal to kill, and a closed fist with the thumb tucked in the signal to spare. The first positive use in English recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary is from 1917, in a book by an American soldier in the First World War, and the gesture spread in the Second World War, according to Time.

In practice

• When in doubt, don’t. In an unfamiliar country, swap the gesture for a word: “fine,” “thanks,” “great.”
• Skip the OK sign in Turkey, the Middle East and Latin America, and the palm-in V in the UK and Australia.
• In Greece, don’t push an open palm toward anyone. To count to five, keep your fingers together or hold them sideways.
• Watch how locals communicate before using a gesture. If nobody around you makes your sign, don’t be the first.
• Apologize and explain if you get it wrong. Tourists make wrong gestures all the time, and most locals know it.

It isn’t only about offense: in Bulgaria, the gesture for yes and no is the reverse of ours, and nobody there is being rude.

Frequently asked questions

Is the OK sign offensive in Brazil?

According to Wikipedia, it has a vulgar reading in much of Latin America, but the ordinary “all good” use is widespread, including among Brazilians. How heavy the gesture is depends on the context and on who receives it.

What is the difference between the two V signs?

With the palm out, it means victory or peace. With the back of the hand toward the other person, it is an insult in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

What is the moutza?

It is the Greek gesture of pushing an open hand with spread fingers toward someone’s face. It is a traditional insult, and the most cited origin is the Byzantine punishment of smearing criminals’ faces with ash.

Is the thumbs up offensive anywhere?

In some countries, yes. A 2007 travel guide in The Guardian lists Iran, and there are reports of an offensive reading in parts of the Middle East. Since travel press doesn’t always confirm these, the safest move is to use a word instead.

Sources

• OK gesture, Wikipedia: the meanings of the OK sign in Japan, France, Turkey and Latin America, and the Nixon anecdote based on Axtell (1999) and The New York Times of 18 August 1996.
• V sign, Wikipedia: the difference between the two palms, Laveleye in 1941, Churchill, the Agincourt legend, the 1901 film and Bush’s 1992 case.
• The Senate and the Cartoonist, Parliament of Australia, Papers on Parliament no. 55: the 2010 lecture describing Bush’s gesture in Canberra.
• Moutza, Wikipedia: the Greek gesture, the Byzantine origin and counting to five.
• Thumb signal, Wikipedia: counting with the thumb in Germany, France and Hungary, and Iran.
• Thumbs up and thumbs down history, Time: the gladiator legend, the 1917 record and the spread in the Second World War.

Gesture meanings vary by region, generation and context. Travel guides help, but none of them replaces watching how the person next to you communicates.