The Fascinating History Of Obscene Gestures

Published October 18, 2013
Updated February 27, 2024

Dulya/Fig Hand

In Slavic countries, clasping the thumb between the index and middle fingers is known as the Dulya, or fig. Bearing resemblance to a fig, common slang for the genitals of both sexes, the Dulya has lost much of its luster over time. In Turkey, however, it is used to reject an offer with contempt, and is considered extremely offensive.

Russian internet jargon uses the gesture to refer to Ctrl-Alt-Delete, since the prompt is usually only summoned when the user is frustrated with the computer. In Western countries, gregarious uncles brandish this fist in front of infants in a simple game called “I’ve got your nose.” In more superstitious years, the gesture was one of many used to ward off the Evil Eye.

Sign of the Horns

Much like the Dulya, there was a time when people used the Sign of the Horns to counteract the Evil Eye. Its use as protection against bad luck goes back for generations, and was famously skewered when Italian President Giovani Leone made the sign with his hands as he greeted cholera patients. Strangely, the same gesture implies that one has been cuckolded, the hand symbolizing a castrated bull, which was also famously documented when Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi made the gesture behind a foreign minister.

Obscene Gestures Devil Horn

Source: Wikipedia

In America, the symbol has a strong connection to several sports teams with demonic and bovine mascots. But several centuries earlier in the Middle Ages, the Sign of the Horns was strongly associated with Satan in Islamic and Christian cultures. Heavy metal acts like Black Sabbath began to appropriate the gesture, looking to capitalize on anti-establishment sentiments within the metal community. However, its use in the music scene truly began with the psychedelic act known as Coven, and was even used by the Beatles, Frank Zappa, and Parliament-Funkadelic.

A-OK

Obscene Gestures A-OK Wink

Source: The Week

Another gesture that is innocuous in some countries and brutally offensive in others, the A-OK is hard to articulate because it means so many different things to so many different people. In countries where it is not impolite, the gesture means simply that everything is running smoothly. But the range of countries that take offense to the gesture almost necessitates that travelers remove it from their body language lexicon.

In Europe, the gesture is an insult to one’s value, the circle of the thumb and index indicating “you are a zero.” But in South America and the Middle East the hand is exponentially more inflammatory, replacing the declaration of one’s paltry self-worth with the phrase “you are the last sphincter of the GI tract,” and often carries with it a homosexual insult.


Next, check out some of history’s best insults.

author
All That's Interesting
author
A New York-based publisher established in 2010, All That's Interesting brings together subject-level experts in history, true crime, and science to share stories that illuminate our world.
editor
John Kuroski
editor
John Kuroski is the editorial director of All That's Interesting. He graduated from New York University with a degree in history, earning a place in the Phi Alpha Theta honor society for history students. An editor at All That's Interesting since 2015, his areas of interest include modern history and true crime.