Fig Sign
The "fig sign" is a gesture where the hand is in a fist with the thumb poking out between the index and middle fingers. It's either a wonderful good luck charm or the worst insult you could ever give someone, depending on where you happen to be at the time.
The "fig sign" is a gesture where the hand is in a fist with the thumb poking out between the index and middle fingers. It's either a wonderful good luck charm or the worst insult you could ever give someone, depending on where you happen to be at the time.
In ancient Rome, an image of a hand in the fig sign (mano fico) was worn as an amulet to protect against the evil eye. It was affiliated with female genital reproductive powers, as the Italian word for the female vulva, fica, means fig. In modern Portugal and Brazil, many people still wear fig sign trinkets as jewelry. The fig sign's repulsive power could also account for its use as an obscene gesture. In places like Indonesia, China, Russia, and some Mediterranean regions (particularly Turkey), the sign can have an insulting meaning roughly equivalent to "screw you." Before you think you would never make such a gesture, one wonders what the locals think when visiting American parents play the "I stole your nose" game
with their children.
