Talk:Thumbs up
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[edit] Split suggestion
- Suggest to split this article into two separate articles — one for Thumbs up (gesture) and another for Thumbs up (newspaper). Reason being they are completely unrelated to each other. --Sengkang 01:26, 6 April 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Move request
Request to move this article to Thumbs up to conform to wiki standards. As the latter article already exists, can't move it (without cutting and pasting). Probably need an admin's help. Thanks. --Sengkang 08:17, 7 April 2006 (UTC)
- I was thinking the same thing when I happened on this article. I don't think the gesture itself is really a "proper" noun so no need for the Title Case IMO either. --TS1 02:59, 11 April 2007 (UTC)
- Tried but failed. Need an admin's help. Thanks. --Sengkang 08:14, 7 April 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Formerly insulting gesture in Australia
As an Aussie travelling in rural areas of my country I have very occasionally come across people using a thumbs up gesture with an abrupt upward motion in the same "up yours" or "fuck off" sense normally associated with the V sign and the bird. In my childhood (1970s Melbourne) I can only remember the V sign with palm facing the person making the gesture. More recently the middle finger has become very common due to American cultural influences. I would suggest that most Aussies are familiar with both the V and the middle finger gestures but that some few must also be familiar with the thumb gesture which I can only assume predates British cultural influences introducing the V. Can anybody else comment on this? — Hippietrail 18:20, 2 May 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Corbeill
"In 1997, Professor Anthony Philip Corbeill of the University of Kansas concluded ..." Desmond Morris' Gestures: Their Origins and Distribution mentioned this long before 1997. why give Corbeill sole credit?
[edit] Clarification
"Another rude gesture among kids (now less popular), is to show the thumb to a person and say "thengaa," sometimes followed making a face, drawing the tongue out and touching the chin with it.[citation needed] It indicates cocking a snook at someone.[citation needed]" Am I the only one that doesn't know what a "thengaa" or "cocking a snook at someone" is? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Junulo (talk • contribs) 22:36, 5 November 2007 (UTC)
[edit] The Latin is wrong.
In Latin, the "thumbs up" gesture is called pollice recto, "thumbs down" is pollice verso.
This is misleading at best, and is the same mistake Gerome made. First, Recto and verso do not mean "up" and "down". They mean "right/proper/correct/straight" (rectus) and "turned/bent/twisted" (versus).
Second, "pollice" anything is a prepositional phrase. Pollice verso means "with turned thumb". If you wish to argue that "turned" means "turned down" (there is evidence to the contrary) then "thumb down" would best be rendered pollex versus.
Furthermore, these are not the terms that were generally used for the gestures. In fact, I challenge anyone to find a Latin source with the phrase "pollice recto" or "pollex rectus" in it. The phrase does not exist. It probably never did. A much more common phrase than "pollex versus" was "pollex infestus", or "attacking thumb". This very phrase, combined with other anecdotal evidence, indicates that it is likely that the thumb gesture used to condemn was to pretend that your thumb was a dagger, and to stab at the victim (or perhaps oneself, at the neck) with it. It is generally believed that the gesture used to grant mercy was to hold the fist in a conspicuous manner and not do this, perhaps by keeping the thumb inside the hand, thus "sheathing" the dagger.
In any case, this sentence in the article is not correct. --75.63.48.18 (talk) 09:29, 8 February 2008 (UTC)
- Yes it is very muddled and conflicts with main article at Pollice verso -- better to direct detail there; will aim to amend. --mervyn (talk) 10:45, 10 February 2008 (UTC)
