# Do you bite your thumb at me?!? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 5, 2003, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-bite-your-thumb-at-me/199678 "2003-09-05T06:28:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-bite-your-thumb-at-me/199678/1 "2003-09-05T06:28:46Z")
When and how did biting your thumb at someone become an insult? ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-bite-your-thumb-at-me/199678/2 "2003-09-05T07:08:51Z")
I know there are references to it in Shakespeare, but I think that’s where your title came from, so you probably already knew that. ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-bite-your-thumb-at-me/199678/3 "2003-09-05T10:11:41Z")
[Thumb.](http://www.bartleby.com/81/16481.html) > [@](#): > > _Do you bite your thumb at me?_ Do you mean to insult me? The way of expressing defiance and contempt was by snapping the finger or putting the thumb in the mouth. Both these acts are termed a _fico_, whence our expressions “Not worth a fig,” “I don’t care a fig for you.” Decker, describing St. Paul’s Walk, speaks of the biting of thumbs to beget quarrels: (_See_ GLOVE.)[sup]4[/sup] > > ``` > “I see Contempt marching forth, giving mee the fico with his thombe in his mouth.”—*Wits Miserie* (1596). > > “I will bite my thumb at them; which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it.”—*Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet*, i. 1. > > ``` ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-bite-your-thumb-at-me/199678/4 "2003-09-05T10:22:18Z")
I do bite my thumb, sir. ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-bite-your-thumb-at-me/199678/5 "2003-09-05T10:42:22Z")
Do you bite your thumb at us, sir? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-bite-your-thumb-at-me/199678/6 "2003-09-05T11:16:18Z")
No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I bite my thumb, sir. ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-bite-your-thumb-at-me/199678/7 "2003-09-05T11:23:45Z")
Do you quarrel, sir? ---
**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-bite-your-thumb-at-me/199678/8 "2003-09-05T12:15:25Z")
I do quarrel. And I have an answer! The “bite my thumb at you” bit is a reference to giving someone a “fico” - a Spanish or Itallian fig. Now, in classical literature, to “give someone an Italian (or Spanish) fig” is essentially a means of poisoning that person - the fig is laced (probably with arsenic). So, when in Romeo and Juliet, someone is told “I bite my thumb at thee”, the biter is essentially making a fico with his thumb, and biting it. Thus wishing death, essentially on the other person. Incidentally, the fico is also a bit of sexual imagery… ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-bite-your-thumb-at-me/199678/9 "2003-09-05T12:49:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Angua \* > \*\*I do quarrel. \*\* If you do, sir, I am for you: I serve as good a man as you. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-bite-your-thumb-at-me/199678/10 "2003-09-05T12:56:47Z")
I met Olivia Hussey’s sister once… does that apply? ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-bite-your-thumb-at-me/199678/11 "2003-09-05T13:17:00Z")
One of the mothers on the old sitcom The Mothers-In-Law used to do the thumb-bite thing all the time, I think she was Italian. (Eve Arden or Kaye Ballard, I forget which one was which.) ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-bite-your-thumb-at-me/199678/12 "2003-09-05T13:40:53Z")
Speaking of Olivia Hussey, in that version of R&J didn’t biting the thumb also include leaving the thumb’s tip dripping with saliva in a fellatio image? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-bite-your-thumb-at-me/199678/13 "2003-09-05T13:44:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Desmostylus \* > \*\*If you do, sir, I am for you: I serve as good a man as you. \*\* No better. ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-bite-your-thumb-at-me/199678/14 "2003-09-05T13:51:48Z")
Yes, better, sir. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-bite-your-thumb-at-me/199678/15 "2003-09-05T14:05:51Z")
You lie. ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-bite-your-thumb-at-me/199678/16 "2003-09-05T14:11:48Z")
Draw, if you be men. ---
**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-bite-your-thumb-at-me/199678/17 "2003-09-05T14:25:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dropzone \* > \*\*Speaking of Olivia Hussey, in that version of R&J didn’t biting the thumb also include leaving the thumb’s tip dripping with saliva in a fellatio image? \*\* Its entirely plausible, and probably a result of the sexual imagery interpretation of the fico. I really hope I don’t have to spell that one out; my poor office mate was bright red as we discussed that one! ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-bite-your-thumb-at-me/199678/18 "2003-09-05T14:46:55Z")
[scouse] Calm down! Calm down! [/scouse] ---
**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-bite-your-thumb-at-me/199678/19 "2003-09-05T14:48:52Z")
Sirrah! I do indeed bite my thumb at your uncouth self. ---
**Author:** ![Shrinking\_Violet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Shrinking\_Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shrinking_Violet)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-bite-your-thumb-at-me/199678/20 "2003-09-05T14:59:45Z")
[waynetta]Stop suckin that bleedin fumb Frogmella ya mingin cah … it ain’t ladylike[/waynetta] Julie [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-bite-your-thumb-at-me/199678.md?page=2)