# Crossing One's Fingers...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crossing-ones-fingers/144753>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 24, 2002, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crossing-ones-fingers/144753 "2002-12-24T19:32:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\
**Post date:** [December 24, 2002, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crossing-ones-fingers/144753/1 "2002-12-24T19:32:27Z")

</div>

People used to say “keep your fingers crossed” for good luck, but in cartoons and sit-coms, often the crossing of one’s fingers was some type of loophole to avoid making a binding promise. But, I never understood this. Where did the latter idea of breaking promises in this fashion come from? - Jinx