Greeks have an incredible wealth of gestures. They can have a fairly complex conversation across an extremely noisy street or through a double-glazed store window without using any words, just with gestures.
Italy was the where I saw it for the first time, and I always took it as meaning, "pretty shrewd."
One that my husband finally taught me after teasing me for years with it was the brushing-an-imaginary-number-two-off-your-back gesture which means you have come second in something (or have rather belatedly understood a joke).
I always understood it to mean "nudge, nudge, say no more.... "
It has a similar meaning to the middle-finger, basically "f*** off", or "f*** you", used liberally by a certain Oasis lead-singer in his heydey.
The origin is wrongly quoted as being derived from the battle of Agincourt, where the feared English Archers would defiantly wave their intact 2 finger at the French. The premise being that once captured, the archers would have their 2 "bowing-fingers" cut off before being released. It is now generally thought that this origin is totally unfounded (check www.snopes.com if you want).
Only if you're Eric Idle
This means that the person they are talking about was being deceitful. It's like 'yeah, riiight'
Someone is telling some untruth, but you get it, right, you see the truth, hence the eye pulling.
Example:
You go to the garage to get your oil changed, before hand you asked your mechanic brother in law how much it should cost. You go to the garage and the guy tries to pull a fast one on you, he thinks he can do this because you're a foreigner and won't know any better. He quotes you 500.-. It's too expensive, so you leave.
Later on you're telling someone your story, now when you get to the part where the mechanic quotes you too much you can pull your eye, because you know how much it actually costs, right?
So it's used where you know the truth about a deceptive circumstance.
This has conjured up the weirdest of images. A real numerical number two, or the morning constitutional/proverbial number 2? How is this done?
Numerical but invisible number 2. Don't know if it might be something uniquely related to Swiss scouts, though.
http://asianposes.com
i have to say, most of them are so true...
(and the only one i own up to is the ubiquitous v sign...)
Hhmmmmm, must reflect my "Monty Python" influenced youth
Do you find yourself asking for Venezualan beaver cheese by any chance?
I still need to adapt to blame everything on Yugos, but this one is simply bullshit as Mr Effenberg will demonstrate the " digitus impudicus) " below:
Have to agree with you there DG, I remember it from my school days 20+ years ago. I was always of the impression it was an American invention anyway. I know some of our Balkan friends have a bad rep (some of it not entirely unfounded, to be honest), but one can't blame EVERYTHING on them.
Damon Hill ordering 4 stanges from Michael Schumacher in the mid-90's:
Source: http://forum.planet-f1.com/index.php...=1&&start=1320
So what? The famous "Effenberg finger incident" was 1994. By then, it had become common practice in most of Europe already. My kids brought it home from primary school in the early nineties, and they had learned it from their classmates from guess where, the first wave of refugees from the then falling apart Yugoslavia. It spread extremely quickly.
I don't suppose the movies parents were watching at the time had anything to do with it?
I always assumed that meant " are you trying to bullshit me?" or " you taking the mick ?" as our tea-drinking cousins say
Very interesting. I see your point. That movie was published 1982. As someone else already stated, said gesture had been around in the USA already for quite a while. I truly don't know where its origin is.
I assume it doesn't matter much what movies the parents watched. Said kids watched "Chainsaw Massacre" while ours watched "Heidi," so maybe that gesture got imported from the USA, just a little bit around the corner.
Although it is a bit OT, does anybody know for sure where the one-finger-salute originally came from?
Some clues here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger_%28gesture%29
Thanks nksyoon. I had consulted that link already before (kindly provided by Treverus way above). I wonder if there are ancient pictures, statues or accurate descriptions of the digitus impudicus . The mere fact that it was mentioned in Ancient Greek and Roman writings doesn't necessarily mean it really was what is so popular nowadays.
Anyway, the important fact is, I managed to spend about 40 years in Switzerland without ever seeing the finger. Ok, maybe I saw it in a movie or two but had no idea what it meant, didn't even pay attention. Then my kids came home from school, showed their parents the finger and wondered why there was no reaction (!). Within just a few years it was everywhere.
I'm sure many old people in Switzerland (say, 80+) still don't know what the finger means.