Fig sign
Videos
The fig sign is a mildly obscene gesture that uses a thumb wedged in between two fingers. The gesture is most commonly used to ward off the evil eye, insult someone, or deny a request. It has been use
The fig sign
Goya, Witches' Flight. A man folds his fingers into fig sign as a protective gesture.
A golden good fortunes pendant shaped as a fig sign from Hellenistic Period (Eskişehir Archaeology Museum)
The finger
Videos
Giving someone the finger, also known as flipping the bird or flipping someone off, is an obscene hand gesture. The gesture communicates moderate to extreme contempt, and is roughly equivalent in mean
Fig sign
…this sign, known as fica in mano ('fig-hand'), or far le fiche ('to make the fig'), was a common and very rude gesture in past centuries, similar to the finger, but has long since fallen out of use. Notably, a remnant of its usage is found in Dante's Divine Comedy (Inferno, Canto XXV), and it is commonly…
An example of "giving the middle finger"
The Cynic philosopher Diogenes, pictured by Gérôme with the large jar in which he lived; when strangers at the inn were expressing their wish to catch sight of the great orator Demosthenes, Diogenes is said to have stuck out his middle finger and exclaimed "This, for you, is the demagogue of the Athenians."
Boston Braves baseball pitcher Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn pictured giving the finger to the cameraman, 1886. First known photograph of the gesture.
Ukrainian postage stamp featuring a Ukrainian soldier in battle dress flipping off the Moskva